Westwood Officials Discuss Westvale Playground Options

Members of the Westwood governing body discussed the playground at during the council meeting Tuesday night. The borough is slated to get a matching grant as long as the .

Westwood is on the list of municipalities to receive money from the Open Space Trust Fund the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders must approve. The borough would receive a matching grant up to $113,400 for an ADA compliant playground at Westvale Park.

Mayor John Birkner Jr. said Tuesday that he believed the borough would receive the matching grant. "There is no indication there would be any issues," he said.

Borough Administrator Robert Hoffmann went over some of the playground options with members of the governing body Tuesday. The first and most expensive option, coming in at $204,000 according to Hoffmann, was what the grant application was based on. He said the second option would cost $180,000 and would not include a swing set.

The third option was just a swing set, which Birkner and members of the council said was not acceptable as a playground.

Hoffmann said a fourth option would be that the governing body would set a price and then a design would follow to conform with the amount of money.

Council President Robert Miller asked if different variables could be considered to see if they would affect the price. One example he gave was to see how reducing the number of children the playground could accommodate would affect cost. Hoffmann said the first option could have 75 children and the second could have 55. Miller asked if reducing the number of children down to 40 or 50 might lower costs. Hoffmann agreed to look into several options and report back to the governing body at a future meeting.

Hoffmann did explain that the most expensive part of the playground would be the concrete pad underneath that is required since it is being placed on top of a former landfill. He said a fall surface would be required on top of that as well.

The grant, if approved, calls for an ADA compliant playground, but Hoffmann pointed out that officials are also looking to make the facility wheelchair compliant as well. He said the borough must have at least one facility that is wheelchair compliant and Westwood does not have any at this time.

"The components that we're looking at would make this park wheelchair compliant which means a transfer station or the ability to use your wheelchair on the equipment," Hoffmann said.

Birkner said if the freeholders pass the measure to release the funds, it will go through the administrative process. "We have to have the funds for the full amount available to cover and then we get that same reimbursement," he said.

Council members were in agreement that they want to get a playground installed at a fast pace.

"We want the playground in as quickly as possible. We want to do it as carefully as possible," Miller said. "We want to make sure it's the best program we can and befitting to Westvale. So that's a juggling act."

The next council meeting is scheduled for June 21.