Wooden playground being replaced with plastic one

After hosting more than a decade of horseplay, scraped knees and first kisses, the park's wooden playground equipment was dismantled Monday in a matter of hours. Contractors cleared the playground structure so they could start raising its replacement.

Officials promise the new equipment -- a plastic, prefabricated collection of slides, catwalks and climbing walls -- will be safer and last longer than the old set.

Those aren't the only differences between the old and the new. Those who pushed the construction of the original equipment say the play area was the product of a community coming together for a common cause.

And they are sad to see it go.

Eleven years ago, Bonita residents "pooled together" to build the playground because the town, which then held just more than 20,000 souls, had no place for kids to play, said Kelly Vest, who was one of the project's leaders.

"It's kind of sad to see it torn down and replaced because we worked hard to get it up there," she said.

Local parents formed a group called the Kids Kreative Committee to guide the project. To raise money, the group threw pig roasts, operated car washes and hosted events in which middle school-age children collected pledge money for completing activities.

"It was a lot of fun," said Vest, whose son, Stephen, was about 10 years old at the time. "We had huge community spirit there. But that is what Bonita is about."

Vest doesn't recall how much money the group eventually raised, but, with a matching sum from Lee County, the total was enough to launch the project. Volunteers donated their time to build the wooden play set over the two or three days it took to finish.

Barbara Newell wished Monday afternoon that she had taken a photo of the old equipment before the backhoe leveled it. She is a former member of the defunct Kids Kreative Committee.

"The idea was to build some really nice equipment for the kids, and everything was up to date. But now there is some new equipment on the market, and it's time to change things," Newell said.

This time around, the $50,000 in financing came from the county's coffers, out of money pegged for future parks and recreation capital-improvement projects. Bliss Products, a Georgia-based firm, is handling the construction.

Jack Campbell, Bonita's parks and rec director, expects the project to be done by Friday. He said he drafted the set's design after holding a series of informal talks with parents who often bring their children to the complex.

"You obviously can't please everybody," Campbell said. "It's pretty sharp looking."