School nearing dates for new playground construction

The Seeley Elementary School Board is preparing the installation of the new playground which will replace the school’s much-beloved Eagle’s Nest structure with a new plastic one that will be more weather resistant and some say, safer.

At a meeting in May 2022, the school board announced its plan to replace the current playground structure. Seeley Lake Elementary School Superintendent Josh Gibbs cited some safety concerns with the aging wood used to build the current playground.

“It is starting to deteriorate,” Gibbs said at the time. “Kids are getting tons of slivers from the playground (equipment).”

Some options had been explored to add a rubber coating to the wood surfaces but according to District Clerk Heather Mincey, those coatings would deteriorate after “two to three years” and would only be an expensive band-aid to a more serious problem.

Materials for the new playground have been purchased and are currently in storage.

“We’re going to start taking it down right once school gets out,” Gibbs said this past week.

The Eagle’s Nest playground which currently stands behind the Elementary school was the focus of a massive project in 2006. Members of the Seeley Lake community raised over $110,000 and came together to construct the playground. Children from the school were part of the planning and a New York-based design firm which specialized in playgrounds was brought in for the build.

Over 100 volunteers came together to complete the project in under a week. “We had kids that were so excited to be a part of it and so excited to get their names on it,” said Dee Schmitz who helped organize and oversee the volunteer project in 2006.

The Eagle’s Nest is full of tributes to those who worked on it. The boards of the fence around the playground each bear a different name from someone in the community, whether they were volunteers or donors. “I would love to see them take all those plaques and handprints and names, and I’d like to see them incorporate those because that was something of a community effort,” Schmitz said.

So far no plan has been made to keep the engraved pieces, but the replacement project is very early along and while the school is narrowing in on some dates, they still plan to hear public comment before the project begins.

“Some of these kids can come back on and bring their kids to see,” Schmitz said. She also hopes this new project can feature some of what was missed in the last design. Such as more swings, and the addition of a plaque that ended up missing from the final construction last time.

“We had a few people that donated quite a bit of money and we never had that plaque put up, and that always kind of made me sad,” Schmitz said.

Replacing the playground is just a first step in a greater plan to update or replace pieces of the park, but Gibbs said the money isn’t there for the rest yet as the tennis courts alone would cost a “substantial amount of money” so the only project currently in the works is the playground.

Community members who want to get involved with the project can get more information at the next school board meeting on March 20.

 

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