Through cost reduction, recycling and humanitarian aid

While the district’s park services division continues to renovate many of Skokie’s three-decade-old park playgrounds, they also are creating new methods for offsetting those costs and giving back to the community.

Currently, nine playground and park renovations are ongoing throughout the Skokie Park district, with playground equipment, play surfacing, and various amenities being replaced. The following are creative money saving, recycling and humanitarian aid measures taken by the division during this process:

• During demolition of the nine sites, sand play surfacing is being given to nearby village and city water departments, which will be reused for fill when repairing water main breaks. To date, the district has given sand to the Village of Skokie, the City of Evanston and the Village of Morton Grove.
• The division recycles metal posts and rails found in playground equipment.
• Concrete from playground footings and bricks from brick pads are recycled by taking the materials to concrete plants.
• Ordinarily handled by an outside concrete company, park services staff are now doing smaller concrete jobs by pouring pads for several of the new benches
• Typically done by the vendor, park services staff are installing new benches and garbage cans, as well as the replacement engineered wood fiber play surfacing at each of the sites.
• The district also continues to donate playgrounds to the Armenian Relief Mission. The mission disassembles a Skokie playground, then ships and reinstalls it in Armenia, thereby providing a play area for children who previously have had no access to play structures. This year the group will be repurposing the old playground equipment from Playtime Park, Peccia Park and Hamlin Park.