WESTPORT — Having secured zoning approval to rebuild the Compo Beach playground, the grassroots initiative promoting the project has shifted its game plan to fundraising.
The latest proposal to renovate the playground — built in 1988 and refurbished in 2006, largely the result of community volunteers — will focus on modernizing equipment, improving sight lines for parents and caregivers monitoring their children, enhancing accessibility for all children and underpinning the facilities’ long-term maintenance.
Planning for the current renovation is a community-driven effort, spearheaded by volunteers from the Compo Playground Organizing Committee.
The group has indicated it hopes to get renovations started next April, after securing permission for the project from the Planning and Zoning Commission in May.
The group has set an overall $650,000 fundraising goal, boosted by $100,000 grants from both the Westport Rotary Club and Westport Police Foundation, according to a recent statement from organizers.
For detailed information about the playground project and sponsorship opportunities, click here.
The website also details ways to make financial contributions, and literally have a stake in the project, by purchasing an engraved picket for the playground fence or an engraved brick.
Larger donations also are being solicited to help buy pieces of new play equipment.
$650k to toss a perfectly good playground into the landfill. This is quite a great lesson for the kids. What an eco-friendly community.
The Compo Beach playground is NOT being torn down. There will be replacements of apparatus that does not currently function (sand and storms take quite a toll), added accessibility components and walkways, increased shaded areas, and more. Additionally a portion of what is being raised will be given to the town for maintenance of the structure, to assure that the equipment stays usable given the sand and weather that it is subjected to. The lesson here is all the volunteers who willingly give their time to make a great town asset even better, usable by more children, and retain all the good parts of the current playground.