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THORNTON, Colo. -- Families are worried about a popular Thornton park playground. Some believe it is becoming a safety hazard for kids. Our Contact7 team went to the city of Thornton to get answers to find out what's being done about the recurring problems at the Margaret Carpenter Park playground.
“It’s a really great park, but it should be up in working order and not a safety hazard,” said Kacey Ehmann, who takes her kids to the park frequently.
She posted on Nextdoor describing the problems she sees at Margaret Carpenter Park and the impacts on her kids.
“The pieces of the floor end up coming home with us on our kids’ clothes,” said Ehmann. “Is this safe, is it dangerous, is it toxic? It’s kind of frustrating when months and months go by and nothing at all is being done."
Some parts of the playground are now closed because of the hazards.
“They're constantly tripping or they're going to fall or they're running into each other,” said Ehmann.
Contact7 took Ehmann’s concerns to the city.
“We haven’t had anyone report being injured or anything on it, but it’s not acting the way it should. We want to get a surface that is fun to play on, that is pleasing to the eye and functions the way it was supposed to in the first place,” said Todd Barnes, the Communication Director for the city of Thornton.
The Thornton Parks and Recreation Department has purchased more than two-dozen patch kits to fill holes on the playground surface over the last few years, but the city said it is time to take further action with the manufacturer in New York.
“We would like them to fix the entire surface so that it is reliable and is just what you would expect at a playground,” said Barnes.
Thornton Parks and Recreation said the material used on the Margaret Carpenter Park playground is also used at multiple other playgrounds throughout the city and hasn’t seen the same issues.
The city of Thornton could not tell Denver7 the timeline for when the entire surface will be repaired at Margaret Carpenter, but the city is in the process of sending pictures and concerns to the manufacturer to find a solution.
