Paperwork delays opening of Monongahela’s Mounds Park

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Monongahela residents and children looking forward to using the newly renovated Mounds Park will have to wait a bit longer for the park to be finished.

Originally slated to open last month, the park’s completion date is now undetermined due to paperwork and contract delays, according to Councilman Rusty Polonoli, who spearheaded the project over the past two years.

“I’m sure there’s people upset, because I’m upset,” Polonoli said. “I want to get it in as much as the next person. There’s nothing for these kids to do in Monongahela.”

Funding for the $145,713 playground comes from a federally funded Community Block Grant secured through Pennsylvania’s COSTARS community purchase program.

Polonoli said he was alerted in May by the Washington County Redevelopment Authority that the park’s contractor, an employee of playground equipment supplier GameTime, didn’t have the level of insurance liability coverage required to start the project.

“Unfortunately, we have no options,” Polonoli said. “It’s federal money and we have to go by what they tell us.”

To read the rest of the story, please subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.