Photo Gallery: One Day Wonder: Building Butler's Playground

Dozens of Belmont residents took time from their families and what turned out to be a sunny fall Saturday to don work clothes and pick up shovels, bring power tools and put their shoulders into a day-long "community build" to construct the new Butler Playground on Oct. 20.

Starting under threatening skies, the workers – supervised by John Hollerbach, a certified playground-equipment installer, and his crew – carried the large metal beams and rolled wheel barrels of cement as others attached the structure together.

The work comes just two weeks to the day when the School Department was forced to close and then demolish the previous wooden structure – abutting the Butler Elementary School on White Street – after it was deemed unsafe.

In the past year, volunteer groups, the local PTA and town residents came together to raise the $185,000 needed to clear the site and purchase the equipment.