The Arlandrian: Cora Kelly Playground Faces Another Delay

Long awaited community funded Cora Kelly playground misses another promised deadline; faces delay until end of school year.

The Del Ray Patch (Cora Kelly Playground Nears Completion) has an update to The Arlandrian story from mid-May about the final phases of construction of the community-led effort to create a new place space at Cora Kelly Elementary and Four Mile Run Park. The Patch reports that the new playground won't be available until late June just as school dismisses for summer break.

Work is underway at the long awaited new playground.

It's been several years in the making, filled with delays and disappointments, but soon the students and neighbors of Cora Kelly Elementary School may be able to finally use that playground that they've only been able to look at through construction fences for over a year.

In a letter to Mike Peter, treasurer of the Hume Springs Citizens Association, Jack Browand, of Alexandria's Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities says the playground at is expected to be finished and ready by the end of May.

The Del Ray Patch gave us the hopeful story of the planned park back in September of 2010 ("Cora Kelly Working for a New Playground"):

The playground at Cora Kelly Elementary School is in need of a major facelift, and the school's PTA is on a mission to provide a playground the school's students deserve. But in order to achieve its goal, the organization is asking for support from the community.

According to Ashley Chappell, treasurer of the Cora Kelly PTA and project director, the current playground is at least 15 years old and was originally designed by a physical education teacher to facilitate drills, not play.

The metal monkey bars and slides stand in stark contrast to the equipment at most playgrounds around the area—colorful apparatuses that promote fun and discovery and challenge children to push themselves to achieve.

According to the Patch, "the last straw came when the city recently discovered a West Nile Virus-carrying mosquito nearby, making it apparent the playground's drainage issues pose a health threat to the students."

With a goal of $115,000 for its playground project, the Cora Kelly PTA began fund-raising campaign to build a new and better playground.

It received a $60,000 grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, and raised another $10,000 on its own, seeking the rest from a grant for KaBoom, a non-profit which a mission to create modern playspaces through community participation.

With the KaBoom grant in hand and playground equipment on-hand in the fall of 2011, the Cora Kelly Community started site prep in late December of that year.

But then everything came to a halt.

Built on the a portion of the City's Four Mile Run Park, the initial installation was not up to safety code and the project sat idle waiting for an additional infusion of funds from Alexandria City Public Schools in order to be completed.

Those funds finally became available last Fall and work re-commenced this May.