OCRS Playground Open for Play

After two days of work, the new equipment at OCRS playground was ready to be broken in by about a dozen experts today - the kids seemed to approve.

About 20 adults started work digging foundations for the equipment - a super dome jungle gym, two toss-ups, a tube slide, tire swing and a pair of parallel bars - on Friday, finishing up with spreading about 130 cubic yards of mulch and pouring the concrete for the foundations on Saturday.

Some of the volunteers don't even have kids in the town's school system, said Matt Fague, a local parent helping out Friday.

Heather Byrnes, co-chair of the playground committee, said special thanks were due Bob Dione for his work digging, John D'angelo for his help excavating the grounds with his backhoe and to Gio Calderon for using his front loader to help spread the mulch.

The upgrade, paid for through fundraising over the last year, cost about $26,000, said Byrnes. 

The playground will also soon sport a volleyball court once the netting is put up, as well as some custom wood carvings by Mike Higgins, Byrnes said. Higgins has carved a couple of leapfrogs for the playground, as well as two game tables - tic-tac-toe and checkers, and a turtle and owl wood carving. Higgins' work will be added to the playground within the next three weeks, Byrnes said.