Fight to restore school playground continues

“Usually, you don’t touch sewer lines for the next 50 or 100 years. We’ll all be dead,” Braithwaite said. “It’s not something that you dig up often.”

Attendees also found out that a majority of the playground area belongs to the Department of Environmental Protection rather than the school, further complicating matters. Community members suggested adding removable playground equipment or small modular playsets, citing several schools with similar equipment, but did not get a green light from the agency.

The SCA instead suggested taking two rooms within the school, which were being utilized for other purposes, and converting them into play areas, which residents found unacceptable. The school has no gymnasium, which is another reason the children need a playground, the residents said.

“We objected to that,” said Annette Bradley, a leader of the New Springfield Gardens Homeowners Association, and former educator at York College. “How do you put children in a room where they are not getting fresh air or Vitamin D, which they need from sunlight?”

Earlier this year, developer Our Conduit Ltd. of Great Neck, LI, purchased several homes along the South Conduit and got permission from the city to run a sewer line under the playground, according to neighbors.

School officials claimed there wasn’t any money to repair the area, which had been completely dug up during construction and stated that the original playground equipment could not be restored because it didn’t meet current safety standards, according to parent, Michael Pinckney.

“Since the developer, who is a private developer, destroyed the school property — we don’t have access even to the old stuff anymore — didn’t he have some accountability?” Bradley asked. “Couldn’t he contribute toward the replacement? That’s still a question that’s hanging.”

Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said Wednesday that the playground equipment would eventually be replaced, “it’s just a question of when.”

Braithwaite’s son Baruch, a graduate of PS 251 and his daughter, Eliora, a second-grader there, were disappointed by what they called a “barren” playground, which contained only some portable basketball hoops.

“I’m not happy with it,” Eliora said. “It needs swings and slides.”

Bradley said that the Chronicle’s coverage of the playground issue in its May 12 edition was instrumental in drawing attention to their cause and helped drum up support from several community groups who wanted to help.

She also was impressed by the assistance the coalition of concerned neighbors received from City Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Laurelton), who set up the meeting with the SCA.

“I don’t think we as a community would have had access to these people if it had not been for the councilman,” Bradley said. “He let us talk it through and it was very pleasant. They seemed to at least hear what we were saying.”