Politics & Government

Town, Schools Respond to Playground Closures

Joint statement by School Committee, Selectmen and Superintendent on future action.

In a joint statement released yesterday, Nov. 5, the heads of the Belmont school committee and district in addition to the chairman of the are asking parents, students and residents to "exercise patience" as the town and schools will take several weeks in determining the next course of action in response to the closing of popular playgrounds located at two elementary schools.

Directed at the citizens of Belmont, Selectmen Ralph Jones, Chairwoman Laurie Graham and Dr. Thomas Kingston, interim, said that after inspections of the playgrounds at the , , and Schools, that the playground at the Butler School is temporarily closed due to safety concerns.

Later that day, the town's temporarily closed the play equipment at Joey's Park, next to the Winn Brook School. 

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"The School and Town departments are working closely together to ensure the safety of all the children using the play equipment," said the statement.

"We have requested and are awaiting reports to determine what steps can be taken to make the playgrounds safe. We ask the community to understand the need for these actions and to exercise patience while we strive to address the problems. We anticipate that it will take several weeks to develop cost-effective plans of action."

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"The Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, and the School Department are committed to working together to address both the immediate issues of the playgrounds as well as the long-term need to create a consolidated facilities and maintenance department that will develop a long-term plan for maintenance of all town resources."


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