Southwest borough parks wait for new jungle gyms
Outdated playground equipment removed and not replaced in half of borough's 37 parks
Parks in Montreal’s Southwest borough are a few jungle gyms short after the city deemed them unsafe and tore them down.
Borough councillor Alain Vaillancourt said some of the playground equipment dated back to the 1970s and badly needed replacing.
He said the city conducted an 18-month review and concluded that of the borough’s 37 parks, about half had seen some or all of their equipment removed.
Vaillancourt said budget cuts hit the borough hard, and with repairs running at an expected cost of several million dollars, he said the playground upgrades are more of a "medium-term project."
Replacing the structures won’t take 20 years, Vaillancourt assured CBC News — however, it will certainly take longer than a year to replace the equipment.
For Little Burgundy resident Odette Hall, that’s far too long a wait.
“They should do it in [less time], like maybe a year — not two, three. No, that’s too long for the little kids to wait,” Hall said.