South Daytona playground being held together by duct tape

City officials say they plan on fixing problem

SOUTH DAYTONA, Fla. – The playground at Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park is holding up by a thread-- of duct tape.

The black tape covers the cracked stairs and helps the bolts to hold them in place. There is also remnants of where tape used to cover the gaping holes that decorate the equipment.

“Why they would even think that’s OK?” asked Joannie Awtry.

News 6 showed Awtry pictures of the playground as she watched her child play in a neighboring park.

“It’s like one thing to fix something with duct tape but the duct tape isn’t even -- it’s falling off,” she said. “I would never bring any of my children there.”

South Daytona City Council approved last week to merge the Public Works Department with the maintenance functions of the Parks Department.

Councilman Ralph Schoenherr said the merge should help generate more revenue and put the money toward the expenditures needed to make the repairs.

Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park isn’t the only playground that’s covered in duct tape. Blaine O’Neal Park has tape covering the stairs on its playground as well.

“Some of these items are budgetary items, some of them are pretty healthy expenditures. So, some of them may be delayed until we can get them in the budget. If we have to close them down, that’s what we’ll have to do. We’re aware of it, we’re working on it and it’ll be taken care of,” Schoenherr said.


About the Author

Loren Korn is a native Texan who joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2014. She was born and raised in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Journalism.

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