By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — After months of waiting, children may soon be able to play in a refurbished Indian Road Playground, Parks Department officials said.
Parents and kids in Inwood have been waiting for the park to reopen since the renovation, which was funded by city money procured by Councilman Robert Jackson and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, began at the end of November 2009. The project was estimated to take nine months to complete.
Although the park looks as if its ready to open, Parks spokesman Phil Abramson said the installation of safety panels, support structures, installation of fencing and tree pruning remain.
"Construction estimates are always estimates, but this all shouldn’t take more than a week or so,” Abramson wrote in an e-mail.
The date of its opening has been a hot topic on the neighborhood online group InwoodKids, with parents frequently asking when the playground will reopen.
The brand new playground apparently has been too much temptation for some area children, with parents reporting seeing kids playing there last weekend, seemingly having hopped the fence to get inside.
"I try to walk away from the playground when we’re in the park," said Marlene O’Grady, 41, an Inwood resident and mother of two boys, "because it’s getting hard to explain to the kids why they can’t go in."
