Quick Response – Mess at Pond St. Playground needed to be addressed

Those were certainly some startling and blunt words from Winthrop resident Alan Peabody during the public comment period at the Town Council meeting Tuesday night when he told the Town Council that there was some serious damage at the Pond Street Playground. Peabody informed the councillors that there were some very large holes in the park’s surface, apparently made in the course of DPW workers attempting to remove a tree stump from the playground.

Peabody, who is the chairman of the Beautification Committee and lives near the park, wanted some answers and someone held responsible for the mishap. Though some of the councillors may have been caught off guard by Mr. Peabody’s remarks, Town Manager James McKenna immediately addressed his concerns, saying that it was an unfortunate situation and the town would work hard to remedy it.

Indeed, DPW Director David Hickey said Wednesday that he was expecting to have the playground repaired and put back into the same condition as it had been by Friday.

So we applaud the quick response by our town officials to a citizen’s complaints. We also applaud Mr. Peabody for coming forward and alerting town officials to the existence of a hazardous and unsightly condition. No one wants to be the bad guy, so to speak; it is not easy for a citizen to speak up as Mr. Peabody did.

Hopefully, other citizens will take his cue and make sure that appropriate authorities are made aware when something is amiss.