VENTURA : Play Equipment in Many Parks Being Upgraded

Play equipment in many of Ventura’s city-operated parks is being upgraded as part of a $500,000 improvements project, a move parents say is badly needed and long overdue.

Wooden play structures will be replaced with modern equipment that meets current safety standards and requirements of the federally mandated Americans with Disabilities Act, said Greg Gilmer, the city’s parks contracts and services administrator.

“The play equipment needs to be removed because some of it’s been in there for 10 to 15 years,” Gilmer said. “It’s not that the play equipment we have is unsafe, but . . . there’s certain criteria that has become more strict.”

Several of the city’s parks, including the one near the Ventura Pier, already have been retrofitted, Gilmer said. But there are still 10 sites that the city has slated for upgrading.

Gilmer said Chumash, Hobert and Marina parks will be among the first to have their equipment replaced or repaired.

The cost for upgrading each Ventura park is estimated at about $35,000, Gilmer said. The Ventura City Council allocated $500,000 out of the city’s general fund to finance the improvements.

The new equipment is designed with parents’ and children’s suggestions in mind, Gilmer said. “We’re going to hold community meetings for each particular site.”

Parents are pleased that the city is making the improvements, and some have opinions already.

“I can make a major suggestion--a place for the parents to sit down,” said Bambi Ruebe, 36. The Ventura resident frequently brings her 3-year-old son to climb on the new play equipment by the Ventura Pier.

Although Ruebe has found some flaws--”the spacing is too far apart,” she said, pointing to an arched ladder with wide rungs--she believes the new equipment is needed.

“Children don’t have anywhere to go anymore that’s free,” Ruebe said. She said it is refreshing to see the city spending money on family oriented projects. “They spend too much money on other rubbish.”

Kurt Griffey, 26, of Ventura occasionally brings his year-old daughter, Kaylee, to Hobert Park to play. Griffey said the wooden equipment doesn’t appear unsafe. “The only thing I worry about is her getting splinters.”

Nancy Breitner, 43, a former Ventura resident, said the city’s improvements are “way overdue.”

“You didn’t see hardly anybody here before,” Breitner said of the pier site. “They’re well-built and I don’t see anybody getting hurt on them.”

Breitner’s 4-year-old daughter, Hannah, said she likes the new equipment.

“My favorite thing to do is go across the bars,” she said, swinging from the bright blue metal structure.

The improvements project is expected to be completed by July, 1996.

Equipment Repair

Children’s play equipment is still scheduled to be repaired or replaced in the following 10 parks:

* Marina Park

* Blanche Reynolds Park

* Chumash Park

* Ocean Avenue Park

* Strathmore Linear Park

* Hobert Park

* Plaza Park

* Marion Cannon Park

* Promenade Park

* Arroyo Verde Park

Neighbors will be notified by letter before community meetings held by the city to discuss design suggestions. The first meeting, which will focus on Chumash Park, will be held at 7 p.m. March 9 in the Parks Division offices, 336 Sanjon Road. Information: 652-4556.