The new equipment at Raymond Crow Playground near Morningside School.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — One new city playground is complete, and another slated for spring, through an initiative by Gov. Deval Patrick aimed at improving recreational access in low-income neighborhoods.

 

Just before the first snowstorm of the season, contractors completed the installation of all new equipment at Raymond Crow Playground on Winter Street in the Morningside neighborhood, and work on the Westside's Dorothy Amos Park will begin sometime in April.

 

"We're pleased to have been able to make a significant investment in these two well used parks," said Parks, Open Space and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath. "They will both have safe new modern equipment which will be there for many years to come."

 

The grant for $200,000 came out of $10.3 million allocated by the Patrick administration for "Our Common Backyards," earmarked for playground projects in or "environmental justice neighborhoods," as designated by the commonwealth's Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Nearly all of Massachusetts' 54 eligible cities applied for the grant funds, matched by $50,000 in city funds. 

 

"Growth requires investment, and creating and upgrading recreational parks in urban neighborhoods will help create growth and opportunity across the commonwealth," Patrick said earlier this year, unveiling the program. "This investment will improve the lives of Massachusetts children and families now and for generations to come."

 

"While most communities used the funding for a single playground, we were able to do two," McGrath told iBerkshires.

 

Neighborhood demographics, along with current conditions of existing playgrounds and community input were taken into consideration in identifying the two project.

 

"Both neighborhood initiatives (Morningside and Westside) were on board, and eager to see these two parks receive new playgrounds," said McGrath.

 

The Winter Street playground was built in 1977 on the site of the former Rice School, the last of the city's pre-1900 schools to be demolished, following the opening of Morningside Community School the previous year. It was named for a longtime City Councilor Raymond E. Crow, who died earlier that year, and cost about $59,000.

 

Much of the antiquated playground equipment recently removed from that park was first dedicated in 1978 at a ceremony with U.S. Rep. Silvio O. Conte.

 

Playground equipment at Dorothy Amos Park is more recent, provided in 1998 by General Electric following the first of two major environmental remediations at the site in recent decades. Approximately 8,400 cubic yards of soil were removed in cleanups in 1998 and 2008 to remove polychlorinated biphenyls left there by a scrap yard that used contaminated dirt provided by the company over a number of years.

 

Following delays in ground preparation at the latter site, the second playground project is expected to resume in the spring. Replacement of an ailing basketball court at Dorothy Amos is also tentatively slated for 2015.