Marathon School to get new play area

Ongoing construction of a new playground and sprinkler system near Marathon School in Little Neck, which began in September, made the short list of community projects up for additional city Parks Department funds this week.

The project was included in Community Board 11's capital budget submissions for fiscal year 2011 at its November meeting held on Monday.

The funds will go toward replacing an old cement sprinkler feature sunken into the surrounding pavement, which allowed puddles to form in warm weather and ice to form in winter, according to CB11 district manager Susan Seinfeld.

A playground and exercise area in compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act will also be installed, according to officials at Marathon School, which caters to approximately 175 special needs children and young adults from across the borough.

For now, the ADA play area will be for use by Marathon School students only, though that might change in the future, school officials said.

"If they decide to open it to the public, we won't have any problem with that. But for now it's just for our kids," said a member of the school's janitorial staff, who declined to be identified, citing city Department of Education policy.

The exact amount of the funds requested will not be determined until the city Parks Department comes up with a cost estimate for the project, Seinfeld said.

Part of Challenge Playground, which occupies the south and east side of the school along 63rd Avenue and 251st Street, the area under construction is jointly operated by the city DOE and Parks, according to Seinfeld.

As of Friday, there was still uncertainty about which city agency would take the lead in construction. Contacted this week, Seinfeld said she was surprised that construction had begun on the project. "It would have been nice if the Parks Department told us about it," she said.

The playground is one of three major funding requests by CB11 involving Little Neck-area green spaces, along with Alley Pond Park and Udalls Cove Park.

Subject to decades-long rehabilitation efforts, clean-up of Udalls Cove was lowered from first to third in CB11's list of funding priorities released this week. Instead, the board decided to highlight requests covering repairs to Shore Road in Douglaston and curb replacement in other parts of the district.

According to Marathon School officials, construction on the playground could be completed as early as spring 2011.