Officials plan to install new playground equipment at Stotzky Park

Stotzky Park will get a new playground in time for next spring, if the Riverhead Town Board approves a proposal put together by Councilman George Gabrielsen and parks and recreation superintendent Raymond Coyne.

“I’m very excited because that’s our flagship park,” Coyne said of the central Riverhead recreational facility.

The existing playground equipment was installed more than 20 years ago and is in deteriorating condition, Coyne said. Town buildings and grounds crews made some temporary repairs to the equipment but the structures need to be removed.

“You don’t want to close it down,” Gabrielsen said. “That park gets a lot of use. I’m happy that even in these tough economic times, we can still scrape it together to get this done.”

The new equipment, which will cost about $50,000, will mostly be paid for out of the town’s recreation fees, Gabrielsen said. The recreation fees fund is a special fund paid into by developers, set aside to pay for recreation facilities improvements. A recent $6,000 donation by Riverhead Adventures, host of the L.I. Adventure Race, was earmarked for the Stotzky Park playground, Gabrielsen said. The town board authorized the acceptance of that donation at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“We really appreciate the donation by Chris Witt,” Gabrielsen said, referring to the Riverhead Adventures principal, who is also a town resident.

If the town board approves the plan, the new playground will be ready to go by April, Coyne said.

Gabrielsen noted that neighborhood “pocket parks” on Nadel Drive and in Millbrook Gables are undergoing renovations.

“I want none of these little pocket parks to be forgotten,” he said. The playground on Nadel Drive is almost finished, he said. “Next is the Millbrook park.”