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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The Ottumwa Parks and Recreation Department wants to let the community know that the playground equipment at Greater Ottumwa Park is in the process of being repaired.

Recently, parts of the playground equipment was vandalized, while other parts have broken. The city is working on getting all of the items fixed, but what they would like to do in the long-term is replace the equipment.

“We’ve just installed four new pieces of playground equipment in Foster Park, Union Park, Memorial park and at The Beach Ottumwa; and we are not having problems like that (vandalism and broken equipment)  with your new equipment. You know that the solution is to take out the old dangerous equipment and replace it with new equipment that is installed properly and has the proper fall zone and fall area. This stuff was installed a long time before I got here, it was not installed properly with the fall zone and the fall material is inadequate,” said Gene Rathje, Ottumwa’s Director of Parks and Recreation.

Rathje says that to replace the equipment at Greater Ottumwa Park and to install a new fall area would cost between $50,000 - $60,000. He says that over the winter months he will be applying for grants to hopefully cover the cost of the new equipment.