Caution tape at a playground is generally not a good sign. The playground facility at Compton Park that is surrounded by the tape is not an exception to the rule.

 

The bad news? Earlier this month, City of Bridgeport officials announced that the playground would be closed for the near future due to an unforeseen failure of one of the facility’s components.

 

The good news? The structure was aging, and Bridgeport Parks and Recreation officials had already started the process of escrowing money to replace – although not nearly enough to do so.

 

The better news? During the Monday, Feb. 10 meeting of City Council, the city’s governing body, approved a general fund budget revision that will provide the remaining dollars needed to make the replacement.

 

And it is not a small amount that was approved by Council. Bridgeport Finance Director Sharon Hinkle said that the amount that eventually was given a thumb up vote was $80,000 to go along with what was already escrowed.

 

“To escrow, we’re adding $80,000 to that and we’ll have a total of $100,000 to replace the entire unit at Compton Park,” said Hinkle.

 

Hinkle said the money is coming from the 3 percent cut of hotel/motel taxes the city receives that is specifically earmarked for recreation purposes. The funding will now speed up a process that needs to be now, which already had the wheels set in motion.

 

“It’s the oldest unit we have in the park system,” said Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Joe Shuttleworth. “Probably due to the cold weather, we had a pretty catastrophic failure. We have removed a majority of the playground itself, and public works is going to help us rip the rest of it out.”

 

Shuttleworth said he is working on a contract for the replacement. He said he hopes to have that ready for the next City Council meeting to be considered for approval. The next meeting is Feb. 24.

 

“It’s about six to eight weeks to get (the equipment) in and then get the install done,” said Shuttleworth. “Hopefully, by the time it starts getting nice and warm we’ll have it all in place and ready to go for the summer months.”

 

Although most parks, including the city’s, see limited usage, Compton Park is still open with the exception of the playground apparatus still up and the area where it is located. It has been roped off with the aforementioned caution tape.

 

“We’ve dismantled most of the stuff kids could climb on,” he said at the Feb. 10 meeting. “We just have to take the actual poles out of the ground, which require some equipment.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Joe Shuttleworth addressing City Council as, from left, City Clerk Lauren Rogers and Finance Director Sharon Hinkle listen in the background. Bottom photo shows the partially dismantled playground facility last Wednesday, Feb. 12.