— SPOKE, October 23, 2000
Page 6
College playground equipment unsafe By Michelle Goring
their
new
with the
Most of the outdoor playground equipment used by Conestoga
In response to the inspection, the
college decided to close
down
must be either modified or replaced to meet the requirements of the new Canadian Standards
“We wanted to look carefully at what we needed to fix and what we could fix,” Schenk said. “What we found out is that we are allowed to
Association (CSA) standard for children’s play spaces and equip-
repairs
ative
you
travel
equipment
that the
is
there but
children are playing on
it,”
no
said
has
taking children outside
The use of gross-motor larger muscles
in
skills,
children,
the
was
taken for granted before because
on most of the equip-
the staff had the larger equipment for the children to use these
According to Schenk, the change
around to the col-
lege’s day-care centres, you’ll see
when
to play.
ment.”
ment. “If
make
work can
be done by college employees.” Day-care staff has had to be cre-
has remained closed.
it
find
think for the most part the
the
equipment, given the time of year,
and
we
the college, then
standards.
College’s day-care centres has been inspected and is considered unsafe. It
we need to go outside it may very well happen,” Schenk said. “But we “If
equipment was non-compliant
such
centres,
Child-care
mus-
Since the change, outdoor activities now have to be planned and equipment must be taken out-
cles.
hit the child-care centre hard.
as
Conestoga’s, are operating as non-
doors.
Schenk, manager of the college’s day-care centres. The new requirements come out
profit organizations.
of research and investigations into playground-related injuries which resulted in the Canadian Institute of
thousands of dollars into the repair and replacement of playgrounds,”
grass,”
said Schenk, “especially when the change wasn’t anticipated.”
equipment every day and cannot use it but they are taking the change
Shelley
Child Health forming a task force to develop .guidelines for play-
money
pool of
In the late spring, the college
was
provided the opportunity to apply for funding from the regional municipality of Waterloo. The offer
of Canada. The standard applies to any public outdoor play area,
time funding allowance of $20,000, which was the maximum amount of
including child care centres.
money allocated to any one agency. The money is to be used for repairs,
The pany
college hired an outside
com-
do the necessary inspecfall and it took until
to
to all child-care centres in the
the college’s
the children, and that’s our goal,”
December before
all
CBSA
of equipment open to be used by
Association wants enough
Anne
Tailleur, president
Web
members
Students and faculty
may
their ideas to the contest
CBSA
members.
According
to participate
ing e-mails to the
CBSA executive
begin Nov.
1
to Tailleur, the asso-
ciation wishes to find a replace-
need.”
Although a lot of the equipment be repaired, some of it will be coming down because the cost of will
repairs
The new
standard also looks at
between
outdoor equipment and the area around it. A swing, for example, must have six feet of space around it measured distance
the
full swing. So although some equipment could have been
reach in
if
enough
the
around
means
it
hits
If
the
it is
marked
CBSA
CBSA
will
decide the winner of the contest.
The CBSA’s free e-mail could become another way of fund-rais-
working with Schenk playground.
as a
e-
hit.
maintains 5,000
month, Everyone.net Inc., California, which owns half of the banner space on the e-mail site, will buy the second half owned by the CBSA. The banner space is the advertisement space online.
Protecting your health. Barbara Beattie works with her detector dog Rookie and her colleagues at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They help stop forbidden items from entering Canada that could damage our plants and animals or contaminate our food supply. This health of
all
is
just
one
of
many
services
aimed
at protecting the
Canadians.
To learn more about the hundreds of services available from the Government of Canada: •
Visit the Service
• Visit •
Canada Access Centre nearest you
www.canada.gc.ca
CaU 1 800 O-Canada (1 800 TTY/TDD: 1 800 465-7735
622-6232),
of
distance
has to
come
percentage of the work that needs to be done on the playground. Peter Schlei of physical resources will be
are main-
Every time someone uses the site
it
down.
tained.
lack
repaired,
College employees will do a large
too high.
is
from the distance a child would
hits a
representatives of the is to
bring
by send-
Executive members and class
http://www.cbsa.on.ca,
contest
we
ing for the needs of business stu-
who want
The
the repairs that
dents,
Business Students announced an idea for a contest to promote a free esite,
think
Business.
of the
on Oct. 12.
I
a pretty big dent on
ment for the slogan Taking Care of
Association,
Web
“With $20,000
make
can
site hits to receive free e-mail
Conestoga
mail service offered on the
She said it has been eight to nine months since the climbers were
new slogan contest
holding
By Sanja Musa
rather well, said Schenk.
manager of Conestoga College’s day-care censhows a piece of playground equipment that needs repairs to meet new standards set by Canadian Standards Association, on Oct. 12. The new standards were approved May 1998 by the (Photo by Michelle Goring) Standards Council Of Canada. we
renovations and replacements in the
said.
Shelley Schenk,
said Schenk.
The college was awarded a one
Schenk
children see the playground
tres,
money.
playgrounds were inspected. It was then that the day cares found out
last
The
region and required the centres to submit proposals to access the
college’s playgrounds. “We will be able to get quite a bit
tions
see an obstacle course set up on the
available to sink
ground safety. In June 1990, a guideline for children’s play spaces and equipment was approved as a national standard of Canada. Effective May 1998, the new CSA standard, CSA Z614-98, was approved as a national standard of Canada by the Standards Council
went
“One day you might walk by and
not like any of them have a
“It’s
Canada
to repair the
used but the children have gotten used to it. Other requirements of the CSA standard for children’s play spaces
and equipment include new or newly renovated equipment, surfacing in new and existing playgrounds and routine maintenance and inspections which must include daily visual inspection, a detailed
and documented monthly inspecmaintenance inspections and annual comprehensive inspections with written reports and tion, seasonal
child injury logs.