Denville’s Gardner Field Playground Wins County Award
Friday, November 08, 2019The Morris County Park Alliance recently held its Community Recognition Awards and presented the Gardner Field Playground with its Outstanding Parks and Recreation Facility award. Committee member Paul Yarosz presented Denville Mayor Tom Andes with an attractive glass plaque and a New Jersey State Joint Citation provided by Assemblyman Anthony Bucco.
Gardner Field Playground provided the community with a state of the art handicapped accessible playground that enhanced the experience for both child and parent. This was achieved by removing the old equipment that was problematic, maintaining the type of features that were popular, and bringing in new and exciting pieces. The old playground, although popular, was over 21 years old, and in need of upgrading, showing much wear and tear. One of the many new pieces included Pegasus, a 35 foot high giant cargo net with 2 (two) giant 25 foot slides. The playground included many of the original design concepts, however there are many unique apparatus that are new to northern New Jersey, and even some that are new to the east coast. These include O’Tannenbaum, a spinning Christmas tree shaped apparatus, a twisting net as well as basket swings.
A gazebo constructed by the Denville Rotary in 1996 was in generally good shape but needed some work. A dedicated Rotarian who helped construct it originally, spent the summer replacing the Trex shingle roof, benches and staining the gazebo.
The Police Athletic League formed a committee called “Project Playground 2.0” and in a little over a year raised $250,000 needed to buy the equipment. The Township contributed $100,000 through the open space trust fund. This money helped provide wood carpet, rubber safety surface, water fountains and various other amenities.