White Oak will seek money to upgrade playground

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

White Oak council voted Monday to apply for a $150,000 state grant to rehabilitate the aging playground at Heritage Hill Park.

Borough Manager John Palyo said the park hasn’t seen its equipment revamped since the mid-1990s.

Borough Engineer Ken Hillman of Senate Engineering and Palyo talked with council about what the approximately $368,000 playground rehabilitation would include.

The grant, which is awarded through the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Community Partnerships Program, requires a 50% match from the borough. Palyo said money from the borough’s bond fund would be used to meet the grant match requirement.

“Several types of (playground) equipment would be out there, along with your new swing sets, a zip line and then over the hillside a couple of hillside slides and basically there’s a little bit of a climbing area up between the two hillside slides,” Hillman said. 

If the grant is approved, the ground in play areas would be covered in two types of mulch. A rubberized mulch would be used in “high traffic areas,” such as under the swing sets, along the path of travel for the zip line, around a small play structure and near the hillside slides, which will be 25 to 30 feet long. Wood mulch would be used in other areas.

“At this stage, you have to do a lot of work up there,” Hillman told council. “The equipment is really, really old and bad. 

“It’s not just a matter of replacing that equipment. It’s a matter of also installing underdrain work. We have to include ADA parking up there, of which there’s none now.” 

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