Sea Isle City children’s playground is not quite made in the shade

Sea Isle City officials will take a wait-and-see approach while considering their options for adding some type of shade covering at a popular municipal playground to protect children from the blazing sun.

Members of City Council at a meeting Tuesday expressed reservations about spending hundreds of thousands of dollars – or possibly millions – for a “shade structure” at the playground on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

“I’d like to sit down and come to a compromise on something costing less,” Councilman Mike Jargowsky said in comments echoed by other members of the governing body.

City officials have gone back and forth in the last five years while discussing the possibility of building some type of shading at the playground to keep the kids nice and cool.

Andrew Previti, the city engineer, gave a presentation to Council on March 10 outlining different shade structures ranging from fabric “sails” to a sprawling metal roof canopy to cover the entire playground.

They would cost anywhere from $115,000 for a modest fabric shade covering for the playground’s benches to $3.2 million for a metal canopy that would span the entire site and rise more than 20 feet high.

More elaborate fabric sails also discussed by Previti would cover anywhere from one-third of the playground to the entire property – costing from $445,000 to $1.2 million.

Those figures gave the Council members pause. They questioned whether it would be worth the cost to build an expensive shade covering needed only during the summer months for a few hours a day – when the sun is most intense.

“It sounds like an exorbitant amount of money just to put some shade for a limited amount of time,” Councilman William Kehner said.

    Sea Isle City Councilman William Kehner shows photos of children's playground equipment with shading incorporated into the design.
  

As a possible option costing less, Kehner displayed photos showing different types of playground equipment that incorporate some kind of shading in their design. He found the photos in a copy of NJ Municipalities Magazine, a news source for New Jersey cities and towns.

Kehner said the shaded playground equipment would cost $285,000 and suggested that Sea Isle should talk to the manufacturer for more details.

Council President Mary Tighe asked how old the existing playground equipment is and whether it could be replaced with something that has sun protection.

The JFK Boulevard playground includes swings, slides and a fun house to entertain the children. There are also some gazebo-style coverings for some of the playground equipment to provide a bit of shade from the sun.

For the time being, Sea Isle plans to put up some temporary shading this summer to cover the playground benches.

Discussing the long-term options, the Council members suggested pursuing grant funding through the Cape May County Open Space program to help fund the cost of some more elaborate and possibly permanent shade structures.

Councilman Ian Cisek pointed out that neighboring municipalities “have found a way” to protect children from the sun at their playgrounds. He suggested that Sea Isle should be able to do the same.

Ciseck raised concerns about children being exposed to the sun for too long, possibly heightening the chances of skin cancer.

“I think the shade is important,” he said.

He wants Sea Isle to continue discussions for some type of playground shading, but added that he thought that millions of dollars would be too expensive.”

“Three million dollars for a shade structure is a little unrealistic,” he said.

    One option to create shade at the playground is a metal roof canopy costing an estimated $3.2 million. (Courtesy of Colliers Engineering & Design and Sea Isle City)
  

Sea Isle residents have occasionally appeared at Council meetings in recent years to urge the city to build some type of playground shade structure to keep the children cool.

In 2023, Lauren Oliver, a mother of two boys, presented city officials with a petition, then signed by more than 200 people, imploring Sea Isle to add more shade cover at the playground to protect children from the scorching summer sun.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Sea Isle resident Lorraine Kilpatrick said she has been urging city officials for years to build some type of playground shade structure.

“The children deserve to be protected – some way, somehow,” Kilpatrick told Council.

Tom Mcguire, another local resident, wants the city to install a sprinkler system at the playground to allow children to cool off in sprays of water.

“It would be a lot cheaper than putting in $2 million of that other stuff,” Mcguire said, referring to the more elaborate shade structures.