Help us save the Imagination Station!

*This was cross posted, but an important read!*

"The Collegedale City council voted this month to demolish Imagination Station and replace it with a new playground. The wood forts, the music wall, the sand the children build castles in - all of that will be gone. The new playground will be plastic and metal. Rubber mats in green and blue will be on the ground. There will be plastic trees and lots of clear plastic and open platforms so that children will be visible at all times. This will cost half a million dollars. That's right - $500,000 to tear down the wooden, tree shaded playground and build a new one with smooth services and all man-made materials.

It wasn't in the newspaper. It wasn't on the news channels. It wasn't on the City of Collegedale Web site. I found one mention at Chattanoogan.com:

"A large building project that is included in the planned expenditures is updating and replacing Imagination Station, the playground located behind city hall. A half million dollars is budgeted for this new park."

I found out about it at a Friends of Collegedale Public Library meeting where it was mentioned in passing. I was told I could go to City Hall and look at the plans. So I did. It looks like a fast-food restaurant playground blown up to three times the size. I'm familiar with that style of generic playground - we avoided them like the plague in Florida because they got so hot in the summer that the rubber mats would stick to our sneakers. Apparently other states have had problems with them too - in 2008, New York City was sued when children were burned by rubber mats that reached 165 degrees. (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/angry-parents-remove-dangerously-overheated-playground-mats-article-1.351142)

In a study published in January of this year:

"David Ball, a professor of risk management at Middlesex University, analyzed U.K. injury statistics and found that as in the U.S., there was no clear trend over time. 'The advent of all these special surfaces for playgrounds has contributed very little, if anything at all, to the safety of children,' he told me. Ball has found some evidence that long-bone injuries, which are far more common than head injuries, are actually increasing."

So why is Collegedale making this half a million dollar change? To make our kids safer, I'm told. When I asked how it's supposed to make our kids safer, I was told because we would be able to see them at all times. I said I don't have a problem with seeing them right now. Then I was told they surveyed parents at the park who wanted these changes. I'm at that park on average twice a week and no one has asked me. When pressed, I was told it was actually the teachers who bring their school groups to the park who were asked for their opinion.

Apparently, the teachers who bring their groups of students don't like the sand because it gets everywhere. The teachers also have a hard time keeping track of their students when they crawl around the wood forts so they want a playground where they can see the kids from any vantage point. So, in essence, parents and children weren't asked what they wanted - teachers who bring school groups to the park are the ones being accommodated with this re-design.

I was told it was in the news if I had wanted to come to the council meeting when they voted on it. I read the newspaper every day and I'm in Collegedale at least once a week and I never heard about it. After some hemming and hawing, I was told that it ran in the community news section about a year "or so" ago - if I had just noticed it then I could have spoken up. Sigh.

Finally, I was told there will be a workshop on Monday, July 28, at 4:30 PM in Collegedale. It's open to the public if I want to come voice my concerns then. I intend to go - it might not do any good but every child I speak with is miserable when they learn that the wood fort, tire swing and other fun stuff will be coming down. In it's place will be an artificial landscape of plastic trees, rubber grass and hard plastic with no place for children to go that they cannot be viewed by all - much like fish in a bowl.

I'm only one voice though. I know it's short notice, but if you are also dismayed to learn about the changes planned for Imagination Station then please consider coming as well. It's already been passed so I don't know how to change it. I am curious when Collegedale got so flush with money - it doubled it's fireworks budget from $10,000 to $20,000 this year and now it has $500,000 to re-design a playground that is beloved by many children.

I need to go somewhere this afternoon but I'll be back online tonight doing my research. I'll answer e-mail then. If you are also against this planned change to a wonderful local park, please try to be as there as well. Thank you! --Cynthia

-- 
Cynthia N. James-Catalano
jamcat@jamcat.com"