FOLLOWUP: How long Roxhill Park’s play area will be off-limits for work enabling the turret return

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | Westwood

As reported here earlier this week, the play structure at Roxhill Park is now fenced off as Seattle Parks gets going on work to enable to return of the custom-crafted turret originally installed with the rebuilt playground in 2013 and removed for safety concerns in 2014. We checked with Parks to find out how long it was likely to take and a few other details. From spokesperson David Takami:

Our crews, specifically, the Concrete Crew, is indeed starting the work to reinforce the section of the Roxhilll Park play area that supports the turret. The unexpected heaviness of the turret had caused it to lean and the underlying structure to slightly sink. The work involves lifting the underlying structure, pouring a new concrete foundation at that location, and reinforcing the recycled plastic structure supporting the turret. Once that is done, the crew will reinstall the turret. Staff will monitor the turret in the weeks and months after the repair work. I’m not sure of the cost but it will be absorbed as part of our annual maintenance budget. The work is expected to take 2 to 3 weeks.

Arthur January 16, 2016 (6:58 pm)

Wow, lot of taxpayer $$ going into this custom turret that hasn’t been there for 2 years. Is this really the best use of city resources? Seems like their are probably more pressing needs they could use their maintenance budget on.

Joe January 16, 2016 (9:54 pm)

Really? It’s the Parks Department’s maintenance funds that are reported to be covering this repair. What part of this project doesn’t sound like an appropriate use of parks department maintenance funds? It’s a park, and they are doing work to maintain the facility. Perhaps what you’re really thinking is that it would be best if all the kids moved out and all your precious tax dollars could go to projects you think are important.

Arthur January 16, 2016 (10:35 pm)

Actually, I am all for the park and the play structure. What I don’t understand is all the money being spent to make modifications to a play structure to support a turret that wasn’t designed for it. Couldn’t they just put a plastic turret up and call it good? Having to monitor it after installation for months seems excessive and raises the question if the turret being used is really appropriate. But hey, let’s just keep throwing money at a custom turret rather then looking for other projects that might do more good for the community at large…
- datamuse January 17, 2016 (3:12 pm)
  
  The community at large has been pretty clear that they want the turret to stay there. Read the other articles on this topic.
  - Arthur January 17, 2016 (4:05 pm)
    
    April 20, 2013 – “Also praised today, the special touch that evolved after the castle construction began: The ceramic turret art by Mike Henderson. “Nothing like that in the city,” as praised during today’s event. Henderson spoke with pride about most of the tiles having been salvaged from “a Dumpster.”-So the community wants to keep throwing money after something that a child’s play structure wasn’t intended to be able to support. Maybe there is “nothing like it in the city” for a very good reason. Hey, but if the community wants it then go for it. Really easy to be supportive of something that doesn’t come straight from your pocket book. Personally, probably best for the city to start saving as much money as they can to pay for the albatross that the viaduct replacement tunnel has become. Then again, I guess this is just showing that these decisions are 2nd nature to Seattle, especially since we just paid off the Kingdome last year…

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