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Vol. 2, No. 7
Tuesday, March 28, 2000
A park play committee meeting was be held on Wednesday evening, March 1,
2000 at 7 PM at the home of Eleanor Ambrosio, 15 North Gate Park. In attendance
were host Eleanor Ambrosio (and her husband Don, the babysitter for Nicholas),
meeting chairperson Lorraine Miller, Sara Harrington, Jane and Don Quinn,
Ellen Andrews, DeeDee Antonelli, Jean Patriacca, Valerie Razis, Ann Dorfman,
Nancy Davis, Ted Kuklinski, and our guest, Mark Gallagher, representative
of Little Tikes.
Most residents should have received in their mail, a flyer describing the
Newton Serves day on April 9. We urge anyone to fill out the form on the
flyer and send it in. It's not too late even though they wanted them a little
while ago. See our web page for a link to the forms, if you have misplaced
the flyer. We would like to get as many local people as possible involved
on that day with Newton Serves. Please let us know if you are planning to
volunteer for that day's activities (leave a message at 969-6222 or send
email to WellingtonPark@aol.com).
Ted gave a brief fundraising update. As of the meeting date (3/1/00), NCSC had received four checks recently since the campaign started in earnest the previous week. Please get your checks in soon if you can, so we will have a better idea of what possible enhancements (e.g. swings, fence, benches) we can possibly afford. There were some volunteers to assist Nancy in distributing the business fundraising letter. Eleanor would draft a thank you letter and Ted would look into the requirements for tax purpose acknowledgment.
The main focus of the evening was the presentation by Mark Gallagher. Mark
is the local representative for Little Tikes (Missouri). We thank him for
coming out to talk with the committee. He was previously scheduled to speak
to us at a previous meeting, but his daughter's accident prevented this at
the last minute.
The company has been around for 30 years. Their factory is in Missouri, so freight charges would be a little less. All their manufacturing is done in house. All parts have a 5 digit number code, making replacement parts fairly easy. Included in their structure cost is supervision, shipping, and the maintenance kit.
Mr. Gallagher indicated that Little Tikes did not have a strong presence in Newton. The Forte Park Little Tikes structure in Nonantum was an older structure using less expensive components, he pointed out. He did say that they had a very strong presence in Waltham, where they were the supplier for 10 parks over the last 7 years. They also have a big presence in Framingham. He admitted that Landscape Structures is certainly good quality but claimed that Little Tikes has just as good a quality. Each has their strong points and advantages.
Some examples of other Little Tikes structures in the area were given. Waltham is a big user of Little Tikes equipment: The John Bright Elementary School, St. Jude's school (mini structure), Graverson Park on Trapelo Road, the NE Elementary School ($80K), the Roberts Playground near Brandeis University, the Plympton Elementary School (across from Leary Field).
There was a little discussion on the Little Tikes structure at Forte Park in Nonantum. It was noted that it was an odd design since kids had to run around the entire structure to get back up to go down the slide. Mark had said that that park was an older structure system that is not currently made. It was noted that several of the post caps were missing. Some concern was expressed about the bridge in that structure, in that the steel seems to dimple when an adult walks on it. Mark described this effect as "oil canning" and noted that it was not dangerous and the structure was still strong in spite of this effect. Since we have a similar bridge in our proposal, he was going to look into whether current bridges have this effect. It was also noted that the steering wheel was loose there (but this was also true on the Landscape Structures Webster Common site).
Questions were raised about the apparent vandalism on the Little Tikes structure in Waltham. Vandalism is very hard to combat. The Waltham structure is in a particularly vandalism prone area but vandalism could occur anywhere. Something like torn plastic on decking in more likely the result of a screwdriver than normal wear.
He talked a lot about their supervision of the project. Site supervision is included. If available, he would likely be the site supervisor for our park. All their supervisors are factory trained and certified. They look over the site and let us know what site preparation needs to be done. They provide a preparation manual and a list of tools that will be required. The supervisor is an experienced foreman. He claimed that 95% of the structure is pre-assembled at the factory. They make a list of tasks and divide up the responsibilities. They like to know something about the corps of volunteers that will be available that day and a little about their skill sets. He likes to break down the jobs and have some degree of volunteer management. He would like to find some volunteer "team captains". There is the possibility that some of the work would have to be carried over to the next day.
Mr. Gallagher promised that they would could back to do a sign off on the structure when it was done. This would certify that it was done properly. Little Tikes provides to the city a maintenance kit in a Rubbermaid tool box. This has any specialized tools and parts required for routine maintenance.
The structure would be shipped from Little Tikes in Missouri. It could be delivered anywhere. Perhaps it would arrive a week to ten days ahead of the build day. We need to check if the city could store it until build day and deliver it to the park. An alternate may be to store in locally at the park in one of the neighbor's garages. Delivery would take about 4-6 weeks at this time of year. As it gets further along, the delivery time may increase to the higher end of the scale due to increased demand. Ted will check with the city to see if it is feasible that the city would make a grant to our organization (via NCSC) and thus we could select the vendor and avoid the time delay associated with the city bidding process. This would also allow us to fold in our fundraising funds more easily. (Note: at this point in time, it appears that this may be feasible; there is a precedent in the city for this process).
A lot of playgrounds go up in one day, he said. Some may take 3 days. Given the size and scope of ours, it looked like a one day job. He said for their playgrounds, the holes are usually done on the build day by the volunteers. They could be done the day before, but it would involve more careful layout, perhaps involving a laser transit. There is a lot of leveling and plumbing (maintaining verticality) to be done. He conceded that pre-dig could be done with our structure due to its limited scope. If the build day was a Saturday, we could do the pre-dig on Friday. The idea is to avoid re-digging the holes. It depends on the skill level of the people. It seemed like about 15 people would be sufficient with 8-10 as the minimum number required. Mark thought it could be done in a day. Jane was concerned that the structure be put in properly and wanted to make sure that volunteer labor was capable of doing this.
There was discussion of whether the footings for the posts need to be pre-dug or not. He claimed that it was not absolutely necessary to dig them ahead of time. One can go from post A to post B, using the platforms or components themselves as the template. He recommended that we have an auger 12 inches in diameter. He suggested that such a tool could be rented from Taylor Rental at a reasonable rate ($75/day?). With such a tool, it may only take a few minutes per hole to dig. However a lot depends on the sub-grade - are the a lot of rocks that need to be dug out? In their sequential system, concrete is poured as you go. It takes 24 hours for the concrete to dry and one should allow up to 72 hours before the structure could be played upon.
The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) has certain accessibility requirements of play structures. There must be a route of travel to the structure free of barriers. For safety considerations, the play area must contain surfacing that is fall resilient. For this, most have found engineered wood fiber (Fibar) to be the best solution. It is possible to have a rubberized surface poured in place but this is very expensive. A less expensive alternate is sand.
Access is not a problem if the play area is excavated - the surface would be flush with outside. If we went the excavation route, we would need to get a quote ($1500?). Containment is important. Is the area wet and soggy. This may affect the lifetime of the Fibar and the timbers if they are in-ground. One approach to doing the surface is to use a "french drain", where first a layer of pebbles, then fabric, then fibar is put down.
If we go with the raised play area concept, then the play surface is 12 inches above outside grade level and there needs to be a means of getting from grade up to the 1 foot elevation. We could berm up a ramp to the 12 inch height. It would have to be at least 60 inches wide to meet requirements. In some cases there is a transition bevel made from rubber tiles. The grade needs to be 12 feet long, 1 inch vertical for each foot horizontal. If we had a fence, there would need to be a gate wide enough for the wheelchair access. Perhaps we could have a stone dust path or maybe an asphalt path from the gate to the play structure transition area. One part of the structure is the so called "transfer station".
Mark Gallagher claimed that doing the perimeter timbers is not too difficult. One can use a string to guide the placement of the timbers.
We need to look into the possibility and cost of fencing around the play structure. We might have to consider this as an option for several safety related reasons. There has been concern with the proximity of the structure to the basketball court and errant balls (as well as keeping dogs away from the structure). It may also help in keeping young children from wandering onto the basketball court into the path of balls or bikes. Ted will investigate the options with the city and find out if the fence department does the installation or we use an outside fence contractor.
The upright posts from Little Tikes are available in either galvanized steel or in aluminum depending on which "system" we get. With aluminum, there is no rust and a better warranty. The steel is stronger (55000 psi vs. 30000 psi for aluminum) in tensile strength. It could take a 7 ton load. All hardware is stainless steel. Torx tools are used for fasteners. They use a clamp system to hold decks onto posts. In Waltham, they use 5 inch diameter round posts with clamps. There is a lifetime warranty on the posts.
Little Tikes has two main building systems, KidBuilder (premium) and PlayBuilder. Design A on our website is the PlayBuilder system with 3 inch posts (galvanized steel) and dimensions of 44x28 feet. Design B on our site is the (premium) KidBuilder system with 5 inch posts (aluminum) and an area of 39x34 feet. Our structures are designed for ages 2 to 5 years.
The question was raised as to how many posts we would need. It looked like about 8 big posts. We might have to do about 20 footings, each 12 inch holes. One could use the deck as a template measure. Doing the holes is not "rocket science". Jane Quinn had secured a quote from Tom Forte, the contractor mentioned by Mr. Loker of Landscape Structures.
Little Tikes decks are made with punched steel with no spot welds. They use 3 inch cross bracing. The PVC coating makes it four season decking. The deck has a 15 year warranty but it was noted that vandalism is not warrantied (as is the case with most manufacturers). Little Tikes has a deck repair kit that could be used to fix the coating. They also have a paint system where the paint is electrostatically fused into the steel.
On platforms, the hole size is bigger than on the Landscape Structures. One concern is that fingers may poke up through the hole and get stepped on. Mark counters that the platforms meet safety requirements and that hasn't really been an issue over the years. The larger hole size doesn't collect water or wood chips as could happen with the smaller hole size on other structure systems. With the clamp system, platforms can be adjusted for different age groups.
The structure proposals were for around $11K. He made a rough estimate that it might cost around $800 for the wood fiber to fill a 12 inch depth on our structures. Other expenses may include concrete, timbers, rebar (metal bars to hold down the timbers), rental of an auger ($50-100/day). We may need 2 rebar metal stakes per timber. It was thought that timber cost may be $700-800. Fibar cost for the Little Tikes structure area might be around $800. If we had a fence, we would need to find out its cost. We currently are receiving a $500 discount on the structure from Little Tikes. A chin-up bar might be added for perhaps $100-200. This might be good for upper body as suggested by Deedee. We may still consider other possible panels.
The discussion turned to the topic of swings. Little Tikes swings have an anti-wrap bearing. Chain is galvanized or vinyl coated. The cost would be $1370 for a tripod swing with 3.5 inch posts. We would need an area of 40 x 40 feet for 4 swings if the bar is 10 feet high. If we went with an 8 foot bar, we would need an area of 32x40. Mark thought 8 foot might still work for older kids. For an eight foot swing, the cost would be $1189; for 10 foot swing $1220. It may turn out that the swing area is bigger than the play structure area. Then we have the expense of surfacing that area. It was thought that perhaps if we couldn't afford Fibar material, we could use sand for under the swing sets. The question was raised as to whether we could get back the 2 swings that were taken away when the Wellington setup was brought up to safety standards.
Ann had met recently with the mayor. She related that the Parks department is the city department that has been cut back the most. The Parks Department really doesn't have the number of personnel that it should. The school budget is very important and probably gets the most attention. If parks are to be a priority as well, we need to let our aldermen and officials know that parks are important to us. As an example, the city budget item for replacement wood fiber for playgrounds may be dropped for this year.
Jane Quinn has compiled an excellent chart comparing playsgrounds that she has seen around the area.
We may need to start a campaign soon to recruit potential volunteers for the playground build. Even though we don't know a date yet, we should gather names of those interested.
We thank Mark Gallagher of Little Tikes for a very thorough and enlightening
presentation.
A park play committee meeting was held on Wednesday evening, March 22, 2000 at 7 PM at the Miller's. At this meeting was a presentation by Doug Knotts of GameTime. A full report on this meeting will be in the next newsletter.
To date, we have received over $2600 in generous donations to the Wellington
Park Fund. Special thanks to Eleanor Ambrosio, Deedee Antonelli, and Jean
Patriacca (and their children) who were visiting door to door many of the
businesses in West Newton Square last Saturday morning. We wish to acknowledge
NEW monetary donations by the following businesses. Please give these businesses
your full support.
In addition, we have also received some donations of goods (e.g. lobsters
for a future raffle) from several other businesses:
If you wish to make a donation, please make the check payable to our nonprofit sponsor, NCSC, write Wellington Park Fund on the check and mail it to Newton Community Service Centers, Inc., Wellington Park Fund, 492 Waltham Street, West Newton, MA 02465 (or just drop it by their 2nd floor office (entrance closer to CVS) - attn: Paula Fiske on your next trip to CVS.) Please mention this campaign your friends and business associates. If you patronize these businesses, please tell them that you appreciate their support of the Wellington Park Fund.
Please get on our email list. You will receive the Wellington News directly by email. It is the fastest and easiest way for our organization to keep in touch. Just send an email to WellingtonPark@aol.com or call (617) 969-6222 and leave a message. Or if you wish to be removed from the list let us know the same way. And of course, check out our web site http://wellingtonpark.8m.com. All back issues of Wellington News are available online.
If you are not wired, just read our high tech cork bulletin board at the park. You are most welcome to submit items for publication here (childhood remembrances about the park, opinions, yard sale notices, etc.) by email or regular mail (Wellington Park News, c/o Ted Kuklinski, 24 Henshaw Terrace, West Newton, MA 02465).
Recently, some of the notices and most of the thumbtacks disappeared from the bulletin board. Please make sure the Velcro tape is sealed along the side of the plastic cover so that rain doesn't get into the board. Lately, we have had a lot of information on the bulletin board related to the play structure and Newton Serves, not leaving too much room. If you have other notices, please try to keep them small enough to fit in the currently available space and keep them under the plastic cover.
The Family Center and Teen REACH Programs at Newton Community Service Centers in West Newton, are pleased to announce a special evening program featuring Dr. Eli Newberger, renowned pediatrician, author, and musician. On Wednesday, March 29th, Dr. Newberger will present both a lecture and concert based upon his new book and jazz CD "The Men They Will Become." The Men They Will Become describes the crucible in which the character of boys and men are forged. How do boys develop character? What can parents, teachers and society do to nurture admirable qualities in boys and young men? From true stories of boys, their families, and friends, Dr. Newberger presents an agenda for action that every parent and teacher can use. Although best known for both his advocacy in the care and protection of children and work at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Newberger is an accomplished musician who has studied music at Juilliard and Yale. In addition to the presentation about the nature and nurture of male character, The program begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Auditorium at Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Street. Dr. Newberger will present live jazz selections from the new CD inspired by the book: The Men They Will Become - Jazz Takes on the Male Character. Joining Dr. Newberger will be jazz musician Jimmy Mazzy. A book signing and CD sale will follow the performance. The event is free but donations for NCSC will be accepted. The event is being cosponsored by Newton North High School PTSO, Newton South High School PTSO, Jewish Children and Family Services, Newton Youth Outreach Counseling Program, and the Newton Youth Commission. For more information contact JoAnn Vizziello at (617) 969-5906 ext. 119.
A cat by the name of Willow is missing from 9 Henshaw Street (between Cherry Street and Kilburn Road). Willow was last seen on Monday, March 20 at around 8 PM. If you can, please look in your garage, shed, basement, or other place where he may be stuck, also under porches or bushes where he may have crawled if injured. He is a bushy, long-hair male and should have on a red collar with his name tag. His chest and feet are white and otherwise he is tiger striped. Please see the picture soon to be on our website at "http://wellingtonpark.8m.com/missing.htm" or on the posters around the neighborhood. If you have any information please call Ann Dorfman/Jon Waldron at 244-9321.
The marathoners are coming, the marathoners are coming. Help Luis Riobueno be among them by sponsoring him and at the same time supporting the Arthritis Foundation. Those runners raising $1500 in sponsorship receive an official competitor's number for the Boston Marathon (April 17). Last year, Luis ran four marathons hoping for a qualifying time of 3 hrs 15 minutes. His best time was 3 hrs, 17 minutes. He promises to break the 3:15 barrier this year and has been training with the Joints in Motion training team. If you wish to sponsor Luis as part of the Arthritis Foundation's Joint in Motion program, please contact Luis at 117 Adena Road, West Newton, MA 02465 (617-969-9400). The Arthritis Foundation is the source of help and hope for nearly 40 million Americans who have arthritis. The foundation support research to find the cure for and preention of arthristis and seeks to improve the qulity of life for those affected by arthritis. If you wish to help, send your tax deductible contribution (check payable to the Arthritis Foundation) to Luis at the above address.