Melrose Playgrounds: What Are the Most Common Problems and What's in Store for 2011?

This is the third article in a three-part series. ran on Tuesday, focusing on Joan Bell, Superintendent of Mount Hood and Public Open Space, becoming a Certified Playground Safety Inspector. ran yesterday, focusing on playground injuries and how to prevent them. Today's article, the last in the series, focuses on the most prevalent problems on Melrose playgrounds and the city's plans for the coming year.

According to Melrose Park Department and DPW officials, Melrose experiences few serious problems with its playgrounds. Graffiti and other, more destructive vandalism are the most common issues officials find themselves facing.

"Last year, we had a lot of damage, really a lot of vandalism," Bell said, describing a purposefully destroyed slide and glider at the Hoover School playground, holes cut in a slide at the Lebanon Street playground and a torched climbing structure at the Winthrop School playground.

Additionally, graffiti and accompanying litter can be a worrisome issue for town officials and parents alike. Last year, blatantly obscene and homophobic graffiti could be seen on the tunnel in the playground behind Greenleaf Place and the Melrose Early Childhood Center. Homemade drug paraphernalia was spotted in the Winthrop School playground, and one parent interviewed for this article reported seeing used condoms at both the Greenleaf and the Warren Street playgrounds.

City officials said that they do their best to take care of graffiti as soon as a call, typically from a concerned parent, comes in.

"As soon as we find out about graffiti, we go out and take care of it right away. Sometimes graffiti inspires more graffiti," Beshara said.

Plans for 2011 playground improvements

The number of parks, fields and playgrounds and their upkeep is a constant pressure on budget considerations. In recent years, Mayor Rob Dolan has identified specific areas―many of them home to aging or outdated playground equipment―that should be targeted for improvement, including Melrose Common, the Melrose Early Childhood Center playground, and the playground at the Horace Mann School.

"We've done a lot of work in the past year, year and a half to upgrade the parks and playgrounds. They were in pretty bad shape," Beshara said. "There's a lot of new equipment."

Mike Lindstrom, Director of Community Services in the mayor's office, agreed.

"Over the past couple of years, we've been able to make some great improvements to playgrounds," Lindstrom said.

Lindstrom indicated that much of the 2011 plan for improvements to open spaces centers around fields.

"The major projects this year are the fields projects―Pine Banks, and so on," Lindstrom said.

The mayor's office has also recommended irrigation improvements to the playground and fields at the Hoover School, changes that will "make that a better playspace," according to Lindstrom. Furthermore, plans are in place to run new water and sewer lines at Conant Park, thereby allowing Little League teams to sell concessions at the snack bar and remain in compliance with health codes.

An additional scheduled improvement will be of special interest to many Melrose parents, including several interviewed for this article: updates and replacements at Warren Street playground.

"We're going to be able to do some replacement of equipment, and give the landscaping a perk-up," Lindstrom promised.

Lindstrom said that the city tries to involve Melrose parents in playground improvements when possible and will do so with Warren Street updates.

"Joan [Bell] usually gets together a group of moms and dads to get some input," Lindstrom said. "We try to include the neighborhood to see what works and doesn't work."