Criticisms over new Warren County Parks playground equipment

WARREN COUNTY, Ky. – As Warren County grows, its government is doing its best to keep up.

On social media, dozens of citizens exchanged comments concerning the new playground set up at Ephram White Park. Several comments directed at the equipment suggested that it looked old and dated, comparing it to the new installation at Michael Buchanon Park so News 40 reached out to the Warren County Parks & Rec Director to understand better the choices that inspired the discourse.

Chris Kummer who serves as department director said that replacing the old playground at Ephram White was done so with a county allotment, the budget requiring the new playground within the same footprint. Kummer told us there are legal standards for playground equipment as well called “fall zones” which affect what kind of equipment can be put in.

The system at Michael Buchanon Park was paid for by a split grant, half coming from Warren County Fiscal Court and the other half coming from a federal grant through the Land and Water Conservation fund. Part of that grant mandates that their be some diversity included in the new infrastructure, Kummer and team deciding to make a “truly handicap accessible” playground including synthetic surface on a few other features. With more traffic to Michael Buchanon, the department saw it fit to spring for a larger system.

As far as color scheme is concerned for the equipment, Kummer told us the regional parks built in the Warren County of 2003 were assigned their independent swatches. Kummer said they strive to keep all infrastructure at the parks matching as much as they can.