Gibbons Playground at Delle Avenue and Sewall Street is slated to get a $275,000 facelift as soon as this fall. The City’s Parks Department is holding the first of at least three meetings to get public input on Tues., Jan. 14.
“We will be soliciting the community’s opinion on what works well, what doesn’t work and what is sacred,” said Parks Department spokesperson Jacque Goddard.
The features of the upgraded playground are “really up to the community,” Goddard said. But, she added, the Parks Department expects to renovate or replace the playground equipment, rehab the water spray device, and refurbish the fence and gate.
Gibbons is notable for its decorate gate shaped like traditional Boston bayfront row houses. The high gate and fence were main features of the playground’s latest renovation in 1996, when nighttime drug-dealing there was a prime community concern, as the Gazette reported at the time.
Community meetings about the upcoming renovations will be held between now and March, and the Parks Department aims to start construction in the fall. That timeline could change. The first meeting will be held Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m. at the Tobin Community Center, 1481 Tremont St. [See What’s Up listing.]