TULSA — Parents are concerned about decades-old, deteriorating playground equipment at parks.
Several pieces of wooden playground equipment in Tulsa are more than 20-years-old.Mark French, a parent, said, “It’s almost to a point where it’s a safety issue because the paint has deteriorated and the wood is exposed. It just needs to be addressed.”
French brings his daughter to Whiteside and Helmerich Park all the time. He said, “Any time it’s a halfway decent day, in the afternoon or after school hours, you’re generally going to see a good number of children here playing.”
With exposed wood on dilapidated equipment, French says it could be an easy fix, adding, “It wouldn’t take but a couple hundred dollars and eight to ten man hours per year to maintain this equipment, to keep if from deteriorating and keep it in good condition.”
He is concerned about the future of municipal parks in Tulsa. The dad asked, “If we don’t continue to maintain parks such as this for the children that might cost a couple hundred dollars a year to maintain, who’s going to maintain a park such as The Gathering Place that’s hundreds of millions of dollars?”
City officials tell 2 Works for You that playgrounds are inspected every month and that unsafe equipment is repaired.We’re also told Helmerich Park is scheduled for demolition and replacement in August, and Whiteside Park is on the list for the next funding package.
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