Playground Equipment Removed from Falconer’s Park

Falconer’s Park, located at 611 Perry St. in Marlin, has been stripped of its main piece of playground equipment following complaints about the dangerous condition it had reached due to age and insufficient maintenance.

On March 13, Cheyenne Nicole Bravo posted pictures of the damaged and worn playground equipment in the Facebook Group “Marlin, Texas - Current Events, Public Affairs,” warning parents about risk of child injury on the playground.

One week later, on March 20, Stacie Carroll Eisenbise posted pictures of the playground equipment being pulled down by a dozer, inquiring about replacement of the equipment.

Pichthida Roth posted an update on March 23, stating “They did not just remove the broken kid playground, but will replace it with a brand new one. He said they already ordered it, maybe arriving next week.”

Unfortunately, this information was not correct, according to a phone interview conducted with Marlin City Manager Jason Creacy on March 24.

“I don’t know when the original equipment was put in, but I did receive some complaints that children were cutting their feet and getting hurt on the equipment so I went and assessed it with my public works director. It was, in our opinion, unsafe. The decision was made to remove the park equipment,” Creacy said. “This has blown into today where it’s all over Facebook that we’re buying new park equipment, it’s coming, etc. etc., and that’s completely false. That’s a fabrication.”

Creacy explained that while repairs might have been possible, if the city modifies manufactured equipment, they become liable for any future injury, and that it was a risk the city could not take given the age and current state of the equipment.

“What we’ve done is commissioned our Parks Committee to seek donors. We’ve talked to the city council to seek donors to look into getting us more park equipment, but as far as budgetary restraints go right now, we just don’t have the funding to replace it,” Creacy said. “It’s built for everybody to use every day for years and years, so it’s absolutely not cheap.”

Though a specific date has not yet been determined, the playground equipment was purchased and installed about 25-30 years ago, funded through a grant and the joint fundraising effort of AKS Sorority and the local community. AKS Sorority members Sharon Tomlinson, Terry Glover and Bryleen Terry provided the principal $30,000, the required “matching” portion of the grant.

Once the fundraising was completed and the playground equipment was delivered, AKS installed the equipment themselves with the help of volunteers.

In the aforementioned posts on Facebook about the park’s current state and its history, many claimed to remember helping parents/ grandparents build the playground, and “saving quarters on a yard stick in elementary school to save money for this”.

Though no “maintenance agreement” or legally- binding plans were made after completion of the park, a few thousand dollars for the purpose of maintenance was placed in an account and given to the city; that money later was absorbed into the city’s general accounts.

One of the ladies who helped establish the park, Sharon Tomlinson, still to this day has extra supplies/ materials from the playground equipment manufacturer in storage, and has never been contacted by the city about retrieval or usage of the parts.

Because of the poor communication and handling of the park’s upkeep, AKS would likely not be inclined to spearhead another fundraising effort to rebuild or replace the now removed equipment.

One commenter on Falconer’s Park posts in the “Marlin, Texas - Current Events, Public Affairs” Facebook Group suggested the city pursue grant options to replace the equipment, but Creacy stated that grants require a percentage match from the requesting entity, and it simply isn’t an expenditure the city can afford at present.

“My priorities are very simple with this town right now: it’s water, sewer, and then streets. That’s going to sound like ‘oh he doesn’t care about kids’, but that’s not the case at all. I want the water to work, the toilets to flush, and then I have to worry about the streets. Parks absolutely come secondary to basic living conditions,” Creacy said. ”We’ve heard that the City of Temple has some park equipment they’re going to remove, we have an inquiry into them about taking some of their used equipment if it’s in good enough shape to re-utilize, but that’s where we’re at right now.”