At its first meeting since the playground dedication on June 17, the board of the Idyllwild Community Recreation Council announced its plan for maintaining and repairing it. “It’s community built so the community should maintain it,” said ICRC acting chair Dawn Sonnier.
The board clarified that money left in the budget for maintenance would be restricted to replacement of damaged equipment and for miscellaneous items such as the thick cushion of wood chips designed to mitigate injury from falls.
Community members would be asked to make minor and everyday repairs, according to the board. “If you notice it, fix it,” said Sonnier. They cited the fact that many skilled volunteers had shown up to build the playground and there would be no shortage of those available and willing to make needed repairs as they became apparent.
The board then considered how to post lists of needed repairs for the attention of community volunteers. Director Claudia Posey suggested Facebook.
When asked what would happen if an unsupervised repair made by a community volunteer led to injury of a playground user, the board responded that volunteers could make minor repairs but “beyond that it could be a problem,” and that some system would have to be devised for those contingencies.
In other business, board directors Posey and Cheryl Vladika previewed the 7th annual Idyllwild Skate Park Games scheduled to take place on Friday, Aug. 17, at the park on the Idyllwild Pines Camp property. “They were cancelled because of rain,” said Sonnier, “but will be rescheduled for September.”
After presenting a treasurer’s report, Treasurer JoAnn Graham announced her resignation, effective in October. Though end of July, the ICRC playground fund had a balance of $37,142.40, the operating account $30.51, the Idyllwild Community Center building fund $499.70 and the popular Speaker Series $1,542.50.
With the resignation of ICRC Director Scott Redeker, who helmed the series last year, the board announced there is no one to head the speakers’ series this year. “We need more volunteers and though there is money for the speaker series we don’t currently have anyone with the time to plan it. Without more volunteers, it may not happen,” said Director Emily White.”
Doesn't appear that the repair of the playground was thought out ahead of time. Not a good plan to let the community at large maintain and repair the playground. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Hope they get ahead of this before it bites them……..
This is a bad idea. One person's thought of an easy repair could be different than another person's idea. Next thing you know, a person is going to have a table saw setup and running when children are present. A person needs to be hired to maintain the trash and repairs of the playground on a call basis.
"The community built it they can repair it" tells you all you need to know about ICRC.