City to rebuild park equipment destroyed by teens

One year after two teens burned down Glorietta Park’s playground equipment, the City Council voted Tuesday night to spend $100,000 to replace what was lost in the fire.

In February, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in the juvenile division ordered the boys’ families to pay $105,639 to the city for the destroyed equipment. However, city officials say they don’t know when the families of the duo, aged 13 and 14, will pay up.

Officials have declined to release the names of the boys, citing their ages.

In the meantime, the city plans to use $100,000 earmarked for refurbishment of bleachers at Stengel Field to fix up the Glorietta play area on North Verdugo Road. The city won’t need the money for the bleachers on Canada Boulevard until next year, and by then officials plan to replenish the cash with the restitution money, according to a city report.

The city refurbished the playground about a year before the boys burned down the play structure by setting fire to a pile of wood chips. When the city held public meetings during the park’s design phase, Glorietta Park neighbors were “the largest and most enthusiastic group,” according to the report.

The council also voted to pay the company that originally installed the equipment, Pacific Design Concepts, of Simi Valley, to do the rebuilding work.