BOURNE -Bourne Selectmen have approved more than a $22,000 increase to next year’s town budget to cover the cost of adding playground monitors.
Town Administrator Tom Guerino suggested the monitors during a recent selectmen’s meeting, adding that the money for the salaries would be offset by a reduction in the Shared Costs for Electricity budget line item.
“The play area in the park, it got to be so densely popular over the course of the summer, that we have to have some controls on the number of people in it at any particular time,” said Guerino.
The town plans to hire three people who would work on a rotating basis, eight hours a day, seven days a week for nine weeks.
Guerino said that the monitors are necessary because the playground gets busy over the course of the summer.
“It’s been strongly recommended that we have staff at that area and this is what we’re trying to do,” said Guerino.
A certified playground safety expert hired by the town last year also made the recommendation for monitors after a 2 year old girl severed a toe while going down one of the slides last July.
Renovations to the playground began last week and the new playground is part of the $2.3 million revitilization of the entire Buzzards Bay Park.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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