WHITESBORO, NY - The families who use the large wooden playground at Hart's Hill Elementary School might help decide the fate of the aging structure.

Leather & Associates, the Ithaca-based company that helped the community design and construct the Kid's Country playground in the early 1990s, has offered to help the Parent Teacher Organization repair or rebuild the structure.

But District Superintendent Arnold Kaye said he wants parents, teachers, the PTO and the community to weigh in on what should be done with the playground.

“I think this is going to work as a combination of district expertise and community involvement,” he said.

The structure remains open to the public, but students are not allowed to play on it during school hours because the splintered wood and missing features pose dangers, district and PTO officials have said.

Read more about the project here.

Other tidbits from the article.

• Darlene Kelly, chairwoman of playground committee for the PTO, said she does not think Kid's Country should be repaired and instead would like to see two new playgrounds built.
• More than 1,500 volunteers originally helped build Kid's Country, which opened in 1991. At the time, it included a conveyor and moving bridges, tire climbs, a pirate ship, a firehouse with a pole, a space tunnel, slides and picnic tables.
• The playground has not been maintained since then, PTO officials have said.
• “The reason some are still standing and some are gone has to do with how well they've been looked after since they've been built,” said Michael Cohen, project manager, construction consultant and certified playground safety inspector for Leather & Associates.
• So far, the PTO has raised about $10,000.
• The PTO estimates replacing the structure with two new playgrounds could cost about $75,000. A new playground comparable to Kid's Country could cost anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000, Cohen said.