Families like city's softer playground surfaces / LJWorld.com

Lawrence and Douglas county

November 10, 2008

Sophie Riedemann, left, and Beth Grinage, both 8, of Lawrence, climb the Clinton Park jungle gym at Fifth and Alabama streets. The city is considering using ground-up tires, like at Clinton Park, at other playground sites. Riedemann says she likes the tire shavings because she can jump out of the swings and the landing is soft.

Jamie Archibold, 11, has a twofold reason for being a fan of the new rubber mulch on the playground at Clinton Park, 901 W. Fifth St.

"It's bigger than sand, so it's harder for kids to swallow," Jamie says, thinking of younger patrons. "But at the same time, it's softer than wood."

The softness of the new surface allowed the rural Lawrence home-school student to play on the playground without his shoes on during a cool October afternoon.

"Yeah, it's definitely softer than the wood chips," says Jamie's mother, Sarah Busse, who is a fan of the new-style surface.

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department in August installed the rubber mulch at Clinton Park and HAND Park, near 24th Street and Haskell Avenue, in hopes that it would help keep weeds from growing in the playground areas.

It has become more difficult for parks staff to stop weeds from cropping up on city playgrounds once the city stopped using pesticides, said Mark Hecker, the city of Lawrence parks superintendent.

"We're looking at maybe doing some more next year," Hecker says.

But expanding rubber mulch to other parks will depend on budget issues and how well the rubber works out, especially at stopping weed growth.

The rubber mulch goes through a process that seals up the ground chunks of tires to keep black residue from rubbing off on hands.

Even though the material costs about 2.5 times more than the mulch, Hecker's department is banking on it to last longer than the wood mulch to save on cost.