June 17, 2016 By Jackie Strawbridge
About $1 million have been secured to upgrade the spray shower at the Astoria Park pool and connect it to Charybdis Playground, according to Council Member Costa Constantinides.
Constantinides announced yesterday that he had allocated the funding in the City’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget. It is a first step in a larger planned $4 million project to fully renovate Charybdis Playground, which parents have long said needs an equipment and surfacing upgrade.
“Since I’ve been in office people have been talking to me about [renovating Charybdis],” Constantinides said. “This is a starting point to get the ball rolling.”
The half-circle spray shower at the end of Astoria Pool is currently underutilized, according to Constantinides. The upgrade would renovate the shower and connect it so that families can walk easily from Charybdis.
He said he will be “looking every year” to find the additional funding needed for the full playground renovation.
As for the project timeline, Constantinides deferred to the Parks Department, which would be in charge of the design and implementation.
As of this writing, the Parks Department has not responded to questions regarding the timeline and whether implementation of the spray shower project will take place separately from the playground renovation.
