The City of Sarnia is involved in a legal matter regarding damaged playground surfaces at Tecumseh and Canatara Parks.
Sarnia News Today has learned from Communications Manager Steve Henschel that the city's legal team is currently engaging with the vendor to identify a means to have the rubber play surfaces replaced at both city parks. Henschel said while they're hoping for full replacement as early as possible, that timeline may extend into the spring of next year.
Sarnia resident Robert Dickieson reached out to the city earlier this month to express his "great disbelief of the deplorable condition of the Canatara Park playground." Dickieson also shared photos to his Facebook page of large chunks of the black rubber matting ripped up and placed at the edge of the playground surface.
"In my short time here, I noticed kids and adults tripping over the edges. This is a safety hazard that needs to be addressed immediately," said Dickieson in an email to city staff and council. "I would kindly request a copy of the record of the last safety check and associated findings of this playground."
Mayor Mike Bradley responded, saying "city staff are more than aware of the issues and are trying to resolve them."
In a separate email, Community Services General Manager Stacey Forfar said city staff share in the disappointment over the state of the playground at Canatara, and the one in Tecumseh Park.
"The team has been, and continues to, coordinate closely with the city’s legal department to ensure that not only both of these accessible playground bases are completely replaced and not patched, but most importantly, are completed to the standard in which they are supposed to be, in order to prevent this type of failure again," said Forfar. "At this juncture we can share that the teams are aggressively trying to have the bases replaced before the winter, however, this is a specialized product and there are very few qualified installers available in southwestern Ontario."
Forfar added that the city's playground team has been out to assess the situation regularly to ensure the facility still remains safe for use by kids in the community.
Construction of a new state-of-the-art accessible playground at Canatara Park began in 2019. Tecumseh Park playground upgrades were completed in 2022.
