Greater Sudbury councillors have asked for a report on the city's 189 neighbourhood playgrounds, some of which are in poor shape and in need of repair.
Catherine Matheson, the city's GM of citizen and leisure services, said the state of the playgrounds often depends on which neighbourhood they are in, and whether the community can afford to raise money to improve them.
As a result, areas with lower incomes often have facilities that are in need of repair or upgrades.
“You end up with neighbourhoods with poor playground facilities,” Matheson said Tuesday at a meeting of the finance and administration committee.
Of the total, 58 playgrounds are deemed to be in poor condition, 45 are satisfactory – meaning they will have to be upgraded within a decade – and 86 are in good condition for the next 20 to 25 years.
Bringing all the playgrounds up to the same standard would cost $2.32 million, a staff report said, with an average cost of $40,000 per location.
Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan asked for a report on how “we can bring all parks up to the city standard."
“So it doesn't matter where you live ... when you go to your neighbourhood park, it's a park that's up to the city's standards,” Kirwan said.
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh and Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds asked that the report include information on reducing the number of playgrounds, since Sudbury has more than provincial guidelines say we need for our population.
The report should take “a real hard look at how many we should have,” Reynolds said, including information on ones that aren't used and areas that have multiple playgrounds in the same neighbourhood.
“I'd like to see some really innovative recommendations,” Reynolds said.
Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said the report should also look at addressing the fact lower-income areas often have the worst playgrounds because residents can't raise money the way other neighbourhoods can.
“The poorest schools have the poorest playgrounds,” Landry-Altmann said.
And Ward 6 Coun. Rene Lapierre said that areas such as the Valley may have facilities that are close to one another, but children would have to cross busy highways to get to them if some of them were closed.
“So look at the whole picture,” Lapierre said.
Ward 3 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac said the report should be sent to community action networks in each ward, since it's the group that often organizes local efforts to improve playgrounds.
And some in her ward and in other areas have expressed interest in seniors playgrounds, as well as ones for the younger crowd.
“I think the citizens need to be involved in this,” she said. “We need to get the community's input in each ward.”
