Mediterranean West Cuts Ribbon on New Children’s Playground

Residents, board members, parents and especially children attended a ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday morning for a new state-of-the-art playground at on North Avenue in Fort Lee that had been in the works for nearly 10 years and replaces the outdated, roughly 20-year-old playground the building previously had.

“This is for you guys,” Andrea Hersh, president of the co-op’s board of directors, told the kids who gathered at the playground’s entrance, ready to charge out and play on the new equipment as soon as Fort Lee Councilwoman and Med West resident Ila Kasofsky cut the ribbon, officially opening the new facility.

“I am delighted to see all the new improvements, whether it’s a new gym, new hallways, new lobby, the building is always being maintained and upgraded,” said Kasofsky, who’s lived in the building since 1988. “And I’m delighted and proud.”

Kasofsky added, “Unfortunately my daughter’s 31, so she’s a little too old to go here, but I’m waiting for grandchildren. And this is the most gorgeous playground in Fort Lee.”

Board member Brent Burns thanked Hersh and the rest of the board for all their efforts in seeing the playground project come to fruition, and he also thanked parents and residents for their support.

“The last playground, I understand, has been here for 20 years,” Burns said before Kasofsky cut the ribbon. “This, hopefully, will be here for another 20, 30 years.”

Burns said that in a matter of moments “this playground is going to be inhabited by mermaids, pirates and superheroes, and it’s going to be like that for the next 20 years.”

“And that’s all because you guys made this available,” Burns said, adding that “not just the parents, but everybody in this building” were “leaving a legacy for everything that’s going to happen here for the next 20 years.”

After the ribbon cutting and before joining the kids and parents on the new playground, Hersh told Patch the project had been “a dream of the board for 10 years.”

“But we just couldn’t get everyone on board with it because it was costly,” Hersh said. “It’s always about the older people in the building that you’re taking care of, but we were neglecting the little kids.”

Hersh estimated that the building’s under-12 population was roughly 60 and said, “We’re hoping that grandchildren will come here with our residents. It truly is, I think, state-of-the-art—one of the nicest I’ve seen in Fort Lee.”

Hersh said safety was a major factor in planning the playground, which features a soft, “safety surface” and is divided into two separate areas—one for older kids and one for younger children from two years old and up.

“We’re separating the kids so nobody can get hurt,” Hersh said. “The safety surface, if you fall there, you’re just going to bounce back up again. It’s nice to see the old and the young getting involved.”

She added, “And we have tons of little babies now so they’ll be using it next summer; it was our dream.”