The city of Red Bank is replacing the playground at Kids Korner Park, though construction probably won’t begin until December.
Public Works Director Tim Thornbury said the new playground will be all wood, like the current playground, aside from slides and metal railings. The current playground at the corner of Redding Road and Unaka Street was built 20-23 years ago, making it one of the city’s oldest playgrounds, Thornbury said, and the wood is beginning to splinter. Over the years the city has performed maintenance such as cleaning, sealing and staining, but anything made from wood will eventually start to rot, he said.
“It’s served its life,” Thornbury said of the current playground. “It’s time for the city to replace it and upgrade it to ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] standards.”
The material selected for the new playground is from TimberForm, which uses a tight-grained wood that would not need to be sealed or stained annually, said Thornbury. New swing sets and picnic tables will be constructed in the park from the same wood.
“It’s almost like an engineered wood,” said City Manager Randall Smith. “It looks so good that it looks fake, but it’s not.”