ASTORIA — The children's playground in Astoria Park is set to get a $1 million makeover, a plan that includes expanding the play space and installing a new spray shower that will be shared with the adjacent Astoria Park Pool.
Councilman Costa Constantinides allocated the funding for the overhaul of Charybdis Playground, money that he says will kickstart a long-awaited renovation of the playground, which is located within the park near Shore Boulevard.
"This new money will help get this playground renovated for the first time in over 20 years," the councilman said. "This is something we've been talking about for a long time."
The renovations will include new play equipment as well as replacing the kid's sprinkler area on the north end of Astoria Park Pool — which Constantinides says is "underutilized" — with a new, elaborate children's spray shower similar to the one installed at Crotona Park Pool in The Bronx in 2014.
(DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly)
The wall between the pool and playground would be removed so that the new sprinkler area would be part of Charybdis Playground, a move that would also greatly expand the playground's size and make room for new equipment and other features.
Constantinides did not have an exact timeline for when construction would start, but said his office is working with the Parks Department to schedule "visioning sessions" to get public input on the plan, which will likely take place this fall.
He said he also hopes to drum up additional funding in future budgets to make additional fixes at the playground, like erosion control and overhauling the locker rooms and other facilities at the pool.
The Parks Department is already working on fixing the bathrooms at Charybdis Playground, which have been closed since last year after crews discovered their pipes and those at the pool were not hooked up to the city's sewer system — sending wastewater into the East River for decades.
Parents have been frustrated by the broken bathrooms, though the Parks Department said it doesn't expect them to reopen until at least 2019, as the project requires building a new sewer line beneath the park.
"It has nothing to do with money," Constantinides said, saying the replacement bathrooms are already funded but that the complex work is time consuming.
"They have to build an entire new sewage line; that is currently in design," he said. "We all want the bathrooms open as quickly as possible."
