But the playground reached the end of its life this week, after Mayor David Cassetti said a six-inch wood splinter caused a nasty injury to a child playing there.
Crews from the public works department were in the process of tearing the playground down Tuesday morning. Nature Center officials and volunteers are now ramping up a fundraising effort to replace the playscape.
The wooden playground was built in 1991 as part of a community effort.
Cassetti said he ordered it closed Monday following a report from a building inspector that deemed it unsafe.
The mayor said he had the building inspector inspect the playground because a child playing there was “severely” injured by a wooden splinter last week.
The child was taken to the hospital for treatment, Cassetti said, where he had to stay overnight “because he had a six-inch sliver that went down through his thumb into his forearm and wrist.”
“I had the building inspector go up and look at it and evaluate what the deal is,” Cassetti said. “He said it’s in real bad shape. You’re talking about a 25-year-old playscape. It needs replacement.”
The nature center announced the closure in a Facebook post that had been shared more than 800 times as of noon Tuesday.
The post — embedded below — attracted nearly 200 comments lamenting the closure, many from residents who had brought their kids to play at the popular playground off Deerfield Lane only hours before.
Cassetti said he was planning to have the steel and fiberglass playground from the now empty Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive moved to the nature center as a temporary solution.
Meanwhile, a fundraising effort to replace the aging playground has already been underway for about 18 months, Alison Rubelmann, the nature center’s director, said Tuesday.
“That playground has lived a long life and has been used by thousands of children,” Rubelmann said.
The effort to raise money for a new playground, overseen by the Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center Inc., has raised about $35,000 so far.
But about $150,000 is needed, Rubelmann and the mayor said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the effort.
You can also click here to learn how to donate to Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center.
“We have some grant applications out to local granting organizations as well, but we need support from the public and from corporate donors,” Rubelmann said. “We’ve been fundraising for about a year and a half but the Friends (of the Ansonia Nature Center) group is a very small group. We depend on the community to help us in this effort.”
The city earmarked $50,000 to “revitalize” the playground as part of a long-range capital plan that will likely be on the November election ballot.
Cassetti said Tuesday that $50,000 figure could increase. He said he’s also directed Sheila O’Malley, the city’s grant writer, to look for funds to help.
Once the materials are acquired, he said he’d put out a call for volunteer help in assembling the playground, recalling the community effort in 1991 to build the original playground.
The nature center’s annual Earth Day celebration, scheduled for April 30, will also serve as a fundraiser for the new playground, with bake sales, vendors, food trucks, and more.
Click here to learn more about that event.
A press release and flier sent by the nature center Tuesday afternoon are posted below.
