For the Ellenville Playground Committee, playtime just got pushed back. Due to a slow fundraising process and the various complications the project has faced since the proposed playground was moved from Berme Road Park's upper section to the lower one, the build date, tentatively scheduled for this June, is now postponed until September or possibly even June of 2009.

"It's just not feasible to raise another $60,000 and have all of these loose ends tied up by June," says Fawn Morosky, head of the Playground Committee. "The committee feels it would be in the best interests of the project to postpone the build."

The news comes as a result of a meeting held between Ellenville's board of trustees and the Playground Committee last Thursday, which consisted of Morosky, Mike Guiney, Tammy North, and Bryan and Katie Gordon. During the meeting, Morosky delivered the news that the build would be pushed back, the move to the lower part of the park another contributor to the delay. Because the plans for the playground were initially done with the upper part of the park's dimensions in mind, the move to the lower part forces the committee to make a decision: pay engineers to redraw and redesign the plans — a costly choice resulting in a smaller playground — or to modify the lower area's dimensions to accommodate the current schematic, which would involve rearranging the park's current facilities. One proposed rearrangement would move the basketball court from its current location to the park's underused shuffleboard court.

"It would probably be cheaper for us to help you pay to move the court than to have our diagram redrawn," said Guiney at Thursday's meeting.

At the meeting, it was also stated that $10,000 the committee thought the Police Athletic League (PAL) had earmarked for their build efforts would not be available after all. In a follow-up interview, Morosky elaborated, saying that she was told that the funds had at one time been pledged by Village Manager Elliott Auerbach, though she was unable to recall the approximate date or specifics of the pledge. In another follow-up, Auerbach said he didn't recall making such a pledge, but that perhaps Morosky was thinking of information he'd passed along to the committee of Paul Craft's efforts to secure $10,000 in funds from PAL during his time working to create a playground, events which took place in 2003, years prior to the committee's existence.

"[Craft] was an integral part of the project when it first started, and he controlled the PAL fund," said Auerbach of the funds.

At the committee's meeting with the village board, Manager Auerbach reported that, so far, the village's engineering firm, Barton and Loguidice, has not yet found anything potentially hazardous or dangerous in Phase 1 environmental testing. Such environmental tests have become a routine part of investigation concerning the entire Berme Road Park site, since the upper-portion's former days as a dump site prompted a closer look at potential hazards in the area. Concerns over the risks of toxic remnants from the dump site remaining in the upper-portion's soil prompted the playground's move to the lower-portion.

Calls were made to the Ulster County DEC concerning potential run-off risks of the upper-portion to the lower-portion last month, though the calls have yet to be returned.

The Playground Committee continues to move forward with their initiatives to build a new play-space for Ellenville's youngsters. According to Morosky, last month's fundraising event, "The White Wolves of Napanoch," a murder-mystery interactive dinner, raised $2,300. Other fundraising events include a recent skating fundraiser at Skate 209 this past Saturday, and a forthcoming "Cosmic Bowling" fundraiser at Ellenville Lanes on April 25. Also, the Playground Committee is this year's recipient of funds from the upcoming "Run Like the Wind" race.

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