Children will have a new playground in Arnold to enjoy this weekend, if not sooner.
Dave Crutchley, Arnold Parks and Recreation Department director, said mulch is expected to be laid this week at the recently installed playground at Ferd B. Lang Park, 1820 Old Lemay Ferry Road.
“We plan to officially open it on Saturday, but once we get the mulch down, we will open it for use,” he said during the May 1 City Council meeting.
Also at that meeting, the council members approved a contract to paint the restrooms at the Arnold Recreation Center’s outdoor pool and recoat the rec center’s locker room showers.
Playground
The new playground was installed in March, but it has been roped off since then to allow for drainage trenches to be dug and mulch to be put down.
“We dug trenches that ran to the creek,” he said. “Then it has to be dry to get the mulch in, and it has been so wet that it has been hard to get that down.”
Crutchley said the new playground is approximately four times bigger than the current playground, which is 25 years old. The new playground is designed for children between 5 and 12 years old.
Arnold paid $106,927 to Hutchinson Recreation and Design of Lake St. Louis for the new playground.
It has a main climbing structure and a swing set with four swings. The climbing structure has four slides, multiple climbing pieces, as well as a five-ring inclined structure to climb through and get from one side to the other.
The playground was built where a pavilion once stood near the park’s main parking lot across the street from the old playground, which will remain open for the time being. Crutchley said the old playground will be demolished at some point, but he didn’t know when.
“We have a trail built around the playground to connect to the parking lot. That way kids can walk down to the playground on a sidewalk,” Crutchley said. “It makes it safer for everyone. We hope to continue that walkway down to the creek in the next couple of years.”
Crutchley said the city plans to hold an official opening ceremony for the new playground in June. The parks department will announce the date and time on its Facebook page.
He said people are eager to try out the new playground.
“I don’t blame them. It looks like a lot of fun,” he said. “We are excited about getting the new playground open. Hopefully, the weather will get a little nicer and drier.”
Rec center
Council members voted unanimously on May 1 to pay $64,973.36 to Weatherproofing Technologies Inc. of Beachwood, Ohio, to repaint the outdoor pool restrooms and recoat the locker room showers in the rec center, 1695 Missouri State Road.
Crutchley said Weatherproofing Technologies is an OMNIA Partners approved company. OMNIA secures statewide contracts for government agencies to produce the lowest cost possible for a number of projects, according to its website.
Crutchley said the work on the restrooms was scheduled to start on Monday, and it will take about a week to complete. The outdoor pool is scheduled to open on May 24.
Weatherproofing Technologies will grind off the existing epoxy paint on the ceiling, floor and walls of the family, women’s and men’s restrooms. It will then apply new epoxy paint to the ceiling, floor and walls.
Crutchley said the city previously had used epoxy paint in the restrooms, but it is starting to chip and separate.
“On the floor, there are a lot of places where it is peeling; epoxy is fairly sharp when it peels,” he said. “It just shows we didn’t have it down properly because usually epoxy will adhere and not let go. We need the professionals to come in to do it right. It is going to look so nice when it is done. After the professionals do it, we should not have to touch it for quite some time.”
Crutchley said the floor will be slip resistant.
Locker room showers
He said the city was still working with Weatherproofing Technologies to determine when the company will recoat the locker room showers in the rec center.
Crutchley said the showers have not been renovated for 20 years, and it is becoming more difficult to keep them clean.
“If you have grout at your house, you know how hard that can be to keep clean,” he said. “If you can imagine people using the showers 18 hours a day, you can imagine how hard it can be to clean them. The tiles are falling off. The grout is coming out.”
Weatherproofing Technologies will grind off the existing tiles and remove the glazing to the eight showers in the men’s and women’s locker rooms. The company will then put on three coats of stone-based epoxy, according to council documents.
“The finish will be like a concrete-hard product,” Crutchley said. “It will be so much easier to clean. You can go in there, spray it down, and there will be no grout or unevenness to it with the tiles. Aesthetically, it will look great.”
Crutchley said scheduling the shower recoating is up in the air because the company wants to recoat all the showers at the same time. He said he would prefer the company to work on one set of showers at a time to allow for the other one to be open during the process.
Crutchley said if both locker rooms’ showers are renovated at the same time, they will likely be closed for at least a week. If the locker room showers are done at different times, the work will take about two weeks to complete.
He said the restroom and locker room areas will remain open while the showers are being recoated.
“I would like to have it finished by the end of the month,” Crutchley said. “We have more open swim times starting on May 24 after the outdoor pool opens.”