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Northland Village Park playground to remain closed until ice thaws

The playground at Northland Village Park will remain closed until warmer temperatures thaw out the ice allowing city crews to pump the water away, a city official said Thursday.

Northland Village Park (City of Gillette)

GILLETTE, Wyo. – Public safety concerns have prompted the closure of a playground in a city-maintained park, a City of Gillette official said Thursday. 

As of March 30, the playground at Northland Village Park on Denver Avenue is closed to the public until further notice due to flooding from snowmelt that has since frozen over, according to City Parks Manager Janie Kuntz. 

Kuntz said she saw the playground sitting on top of what appeared to be an ice-skating rink earlier this morning and approved the closure to keep children from risking injury by falling onto the ice if they were to play on the equipment. 

Flooding at the park has been an ongoing issue for years. The play structure was redesigned in recent years to prevent standing water from accumulating and to replace old and broken equipment, Kuntz said. 

With the new design, the structure is intended to handle up to a two-inch rain event without water accumulating on the surface, she continued.

But the heavy snowfall this season combined with sporadic thawing and freezing temperatures have disrupted the structure’s ability to drain water away, leaving snowmelt nowhere to go but up, according to Kuntz. 

The plan is to have the park closed until warmer temperatures melt the ice, at which point city crews will be able to pump the water out and re-open the playground.  

“We’ll get to it as soon as we can,” Kuntz said.

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