First off congratulations to Ashley Fox for doing a wonderful job in completing her requirements for a Silver Award.
A Stinky Brown Pile of Crap Award goes to the adults that screwed the pooch in getting this apparatus installed.
This installation brought to you by the City of Wildomar is:
1. An overly complicated backyard contraption which was being entered backwards at first because no one knew what they had or how it worked, installation was not finished until the day before the second scheduled ribbon cutting. It also has to be removed daily because it lacks the necessary security hardware that other apparatuses in the Tot-Lot have to make theft difficult.
2. It will add time to the part-time employees work day by its needing to be installed, checked on and taken down daily. Who’s going to put it away when park closes, the security guard, as the part-time employee will have been gone home for several hours.
3. This apparatus has numerous attachments that are easily stolen, much like the web belts on the molded swings at Regency Heritage Park that were never replaced. Is this the future of this device?.
4. Some claim there was a plan, some claim the apparatus arrived behind schedule which screwed up this plan. Well the truth is the drawings for this item have been available from the manufacturers website since day one, back before Easter. Despite this fact on August 25, 2014 the Parks Subcommittee made the final decision on where it would go 2 DAYS AFTER its initial installation was supposed to take place on August 23, 2014 along with spending as much as $28,500 in Developer Impact Fees to accomplish this goal. The city council gave the final nod of approving to the Wildomar Standing Subcommittee for Parks plan on September 10, 2014, all without any approved drawings being presented. Thankfully PV Maintenance, the cities contractor for city facilities donated the time so it will only cost the taxpayers whatever it cost to remove this contraption an return the Tot-Lot back to its former glory, accessible to all.
Numerous other problems exist with this apparatus as installed currently:
1. The slab it sits on today is 184 inches or (15 feet 4 inches) X 195 inches or (16 feet 3 inches).
The concrete slab poured with frame embedded.
The drawing sent by the manufacturer and available on their website
Drawing supplied by the manufacturer
This size use zone is also called out in the “Public Playground Safety Handbook” issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission “Publication 325″ last revised November 2010. This publication is available for download at http://www.cpsc.gov//PageFiles/122149/325.pdf
2. Also included in this government publication is another very important dimension which is found on Page 38
Section 5.3.8.2 Fall Height – The fall height for swings is the vertical distance between the pivot point and the protective surfacing beneath it. In the case of the Freedom Swing this distance is 96 inches (8 feet).
Section 2.4 Surfacing The surfacing under and around playground equipment is one of the most important factors in reducing the likelihood of life-threatening head injuries. A fall onto a shock absorbing surface is less likely to cause a serious head injury than a fall onto a hard surface. However , some injuries from falls, including broken limbs, may occur no matter what playground surfacing material is used.
The most widely used test method for evaluating the shock absorbing properties of a playground surfacing material is to drop an instrumented metal headform onto a sample of the material and record the acceleration/time pulse during the impact. Field and laboratory test methods are described in ASTM F1292 Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surface Systems Under and Around Playground Equipment.
Testing using the methods described in ASTM F1292 will provide a “critical height” rating of the surface. This height can be considered as an approximation of the fall height below which a life-threatening head injury would not be expected to occur . Manufacturers and installers of playground protective surfacing should provide the critical height rating of their materials. This rating should be greater than or equal to the fall height of the highest piece of equipment on the playground. The fall height of a piece of equipment is the distance between the highest designated play surface on a piece of equipment and the protective surface beneath it. Details for determining the highest designated play surface and fall height on some types of equipment are
included in §5 Parts of the Playground. (See Section 5.3.8.2 above)
2.4.1 Equipment not covered by protective surfacing recommendations
The recommendations for protective surfacing do not apply to equipment that requires a child to be standing or sitting at ground level. Examples of such equipment are:
• Sand boxes
• Activity walls at ground level
• Play houses
• Any other equipment that children use when their feet remain in contact with the ground surface
Why all the information about fall attenuation?
Because the 3/4 inch Rubber-Cal tiles used below the swing are not rated for any fall.
Fall protection material selected by ?
This company make another type of tile that is 2 1/2 inches thick which is rated for a 6 foot fall which still falls short of the requirement.
The best material which meets all the requirements already existed in the Tot-Lot. Engineered Wood Fiber.
3. American Disability Act (ADA) requires there be an accessible route of travel. This Tot-Lot had that prior to the concrete ramp being removed in order to accommodate this apparatus. What we are left with is a straight drop-off an undersize slab, with even an attempt at a ramp on the far end being inadequate (its is only 48 inches wide with no slope,
Inadequate width and no slope
not 60 inches with a less than 30 degree slope as recommended by ADA)
A proper ADA ramp
Boil it down we have a Use Zone that is to Small, we have NO fall protection and No access to rest of the Tot-Lot since the removal of the only ramp into it.
So as to not go to waste
Donate it to the senior center where persons with lifetime of experience dealing with difficult situations now confined to a wheelchair might enjoy it reliving their childhood.
Once again we have a carefully researched and documented article from Kenny Mayes about the inadequate and poorly planned addition to our parks equipment. Sadly, it renders the supposedly finished project a liability to the city and a danger to anyone using the equipment.
How much more proof do we need of the misguided and unacceptable performance of the Wildomar Parks and Recreation Standing Subcommittee? e.g. Marsha Swanson and Bridgette Moore.
Honest to god, 9-year old children playing “store” in the back yard with paper boxes make better decisions than this subcommittee and the city council members who gave their misguided and un-researched approval to this project – more or less after the fact.
I mean, really, how dumb not to take advantage of the swing manufacturer’s open website and free instructions, especially when those instructions were regarding the safety of a disabled child using one of their produces in our city parks! This is the height of irresponsibility and there is no excuse for it. Industry and government publications contain all of the safety and specifications and are freely available to the city.
Why in heavens name wasn’t someone on city staff given the task of accessing and following this vital information. At this rate the city is left wide open to yet another lawsuit and/or the chance of having our PARSAC liability insurance cancelled for cause.
Even more important, children using this poorly planned and installed equipment will be at risk of serious injury.
Martha – another disturbing trend in this city is to ignore something until it bites them in the ass (like when they over did the engineered wood fiber spending three times what they really needed). This city had all three Tot-Lots “reviewed” by a Certified Playground Safety Inspector on August the 6th, to date many of the deficiencies still exist. There are no age appropriate signs at two of the parks, the age appropriate decals on the apparatuses are still in tatters at all three parks, there are a couple of slides that need to be replaced, one at Marna and one at Regency. Hand holds that need to be installed at Regency, adjustments still need to be made at Windsong, but without the proper tools the cities employee is kind of up the creek with no paddle. Other than patting themselves on the back these parks are so unimportant to any of council members.