Portsmouth gets lead out of parks with one to go

PORTSMOUTH

For decades, the playgrounds scattered throughout the city typically consisted of some swings, maybe a spring rocker, a really tall slide and lead.

There was so much lead in the paint and soil that after the city commissioned tests in 2000, there wasn't any playground equipment left after contaminated equipment was removed, Meg Pittenger, Portsmouth's parks manager, said.

The playgrounds didn't conform with national standards developed in the late 1990s, Portsmouth's director of parks, recreation and leisure services, Mike Morris, said.

Since then, the city has spruced up most of its playgrounds and will soon begin work on the final one, in the Highland Biltmore neighborhood. Bright new modular structures that comply with federal guidelines and are accessible by handicapped children have been installed in nine playgrounds, and the city's school system has replaced equipment at 12 of its facilities, Morris said.

The estimated $50,000 Highland Biltmore project will go in behind an existing baseball field at the corner of Beacon Road and Elliott Avenue, Morris said.

"It's wonderful that they're looking to put something new there because we do need it," Lara Mortimer, president of the Highland Biltmore Civic League, said.

She grew up in the neighborhood and remembers a few swings and maybe a slide on the site where the new playground is planned.

"Just enough to keep the children of the ballplayers entertained, basically," Mortimer said.

That equipment has been gone for at least a decade and younger families in the neighborhood could use a playground, she said.

All told, the city's playground revitalization efforts, not including the school playground improvements, cost an estimated $495,000. The equipment is expected to last at least 15 years.

Pittenger said most of the city's playgrounds were built in the 1960s.

The idea was to construct a small playground in every neighborhood, she said.

The current trend is toward larger, community-oriented playgrounds with more amenities, rather than a park on every corner, she said.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, youngsters scrambled up an imitation-rock climbing wall at City Park and peeked out from below the bright-yellow twisting slide.

Melanie Michaels of Portsmouth said she takes her two sons, 10 and 4, to the park a few times each year.

"There's a lot to do here - room to run," Michaels said.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com