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Residents approve new playground equipment

Date: 10/22/2015

EAST LONGMEADOW – Residents voted to approve three articles for the purchase of new playground equipment at district elementary schools during the Oct. 19 Special Town Meeting.

A majority voted to approve Article 1, which called for a $52,000 appropriation of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money to be used to purchase and install playscape equipment at Mountain View Elementary School.

“We’re replacing a small outdated non ADA compliant playscape with a new playscape,” School Committee Chair Richard Freccero said. “This new playscape will include, but not be limited to, slides, rings, climbing areas, catwalks, and a horizontal bar.”

Article 2 called for $18,500 in CPA funds to be used for the purchase and installation of swing sets at Mapleshade Elementary School and was approved unanimously. Article 3 also called for an appropriation of $79,000 in CPA money for the purchase and installation of playscape equipment at Meadow Brook Elementary School.

Voters also approved the use of $25,000 to restore the town’s first motorized fire apparatus – a 1924 Seagrave Suburbanite Pumper – for historical purposes.

“The truck was retired from service in 1957 where it went on to be used by the Department of Public Works,” Fire Lt. Ed McCandlish said. “Sometime in the mid 1970s, the Fire Department acquired it back and it was dismantled sometime in the early to mid 1980s … The $25,000 is basically what I would call a kick-off funding to kind of get this thing rolling.”

Residents also approved the establishment of an Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Liability Trust Fund.

The town approved a $1 million transfer from free cash and additional $100,000 appropriated at previous Town Meetings, but not used, to be placed into that trust.  

“This will have no impact on the town’s operating budget and it is essentially money that was turned back from unused funds and it won’t cause any pain on the town,” Appropriations Committee Chair Eric Madison said. “It’s an opportunity to put a large sum of money towards that $26 million [OPEB] obligation.”