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New playground becoming litter box

I don’t know if you have had time to go and enjoy the new playground at the Glenmerry Elementary School. It is a truly wonderful place! The children using it have a marvelous time, and the playground is sturdy enough for gentle adult use as well.

I don’t know if you have had time to go and enjoy the new playground at the Glenmerry Elementary School. It is a truly wonderful place! The children using it have a marvelous time, and the playground is sturdy enough for gentle adult use as well.

Unfortunately, like many other wonderful places, there are some inconsiderate people coming there.

Some are young teenagers who play water balloons, and consume large Mr. Freeze ice treats, and leave the broken balloons, and the plastic wrap for the Mr. Freeze all over the new play surface.

You would think that their parents would have taught them to clean up after themselves by that age.  While the mess from these two activities is not nice to see, at least it is relatively easy for others to clean up if necessary. The wads of gum that they are leaving on the fibers do not clean up easily, especially in the hot weather we are now enjoying.

The people with whom I am most unhappy are the sunflower seed eaters. They are consuming the sunflower seeds, and spitting the shells all over the new playground surface. While some of these sunflower seed eaters may be young people, at least one adult has been seen there watching over her children at play, and spitting the sunflower shells all around while waiting for the children to be finished playing. Unfortunately, the shells are much harder to clean up. They do not rake up well, and they do not sweep up well either.

A ShopVac cannot be used due to the rubber bits that are used to keep the Forever Lawn fibers standing up. It seems that only something like duct tape to capture the pieces like flies to flypaper, or actually picking up each shell by hand, work to remove them, both of which options are very time consuming, and somewhat futile since more shells are spat out again later in the day.

One more thing to mention is that the school grounds are a smoke-free area, but every day there are more cigarette butts left around. Thank you for letting me express my disgust at the inconsiderate behaviour of these people.

Katy Pearson

Trail