Palmyra gets new playground Volunteers install $10,000 project, funded through donations

PALMYRA – More than a dozen volunteers began Saturday morning surrounded by boxes of cedar parts and pieces, but by day’s end, they had built a playground.

More than $10,000 worth of slides, tunnels, swings, ladders and a gazebo were purchased from CedarWorks of Rockport by the Palmyra Parks Committee.

The group of four women has been holding fundraisers for the past several years, said Donna Perkins, one of the driving forces behind the park’s creation and development.

“We’ve had bottle drives, food sales, rabies clinics, sold snacks during baseball games, held toll bridges and had a nice donation from Wal-Mart,” Perkins said Saturday.

The town purchased the 40 acres next to the town hall in 1990 to create a park. Over the past 16 years, a skating rink has been developed, an enclosed basketball court paved and ball parks and picnic areas installed.

But Saturday’s cedar and high-impact plastic playground equipment was the first to be erected in the park.

The volunteers broke up into teams, each with a specific job. There were tire swings, rope climbs, a tunnel and a slide.

The playground is close to the parking area near the ball fields. Over the years, most of the park’s development has occurred on the east side of the park, closest to the town hall on Route 2.

“But we own way over to the woods,” Perkins said. “We hope to add hiking trails in the future.

“The park is well used,” she said. “In fact, the town office staff next door said they see tourists stop here all the time.”

The park was created in 1990 and in 2001, the townspeople raised $16,000 for a veteran’s memorial, which graces the park entrance. In 2003, a former portable classroom at Palmyra Consolidated School was moved to the park, and voters earlier this year determined that it will be used next year as a town office.

This will allow for more space for town office workers, and the new building will be heated more efficiently than the 1880s-era town hall. The hall will remain a community-gathering place.