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LAKE PLACID - A group of parents and teachers want to build a new playground at the Lake Placid Elementary School.

Representatives of FRIENDS, the school's parent-teacher organization, are working on plans for a new "natural" playground at the school.

Katrina Kroes, co-chair of the group, said the existing playground, which is more than 20 years old, has deteriorated to the point that some of the equipment is unsafe.

"Children are coming off the playground with splinters," she said. "It's in disrepair. It's not to code anymore. We feel it's time for a new playground."

The group has looked at several options for a new playground. Kroes said the company that designed the existing playground told them it would cost $45,000 to get it up to code, but those repairs would only last another six or seven years.

"That didn't seem like the most cost-effective option," Kroes said.

Building a new, traditional playground would cost anywhere between $99,000 and $145,000, based on several quotes the group received.

"If we're looking to raise money, that's a pretty substantial price tag," Kroes said.

The idea of a "natural" playground came up last year when several of the parents heard about The Pines, a playground at The Wild Center natural-history museum in Tupper Lake that uses logs as balance beams, sticks for a fort and an uprooted tree as a jungle gym.

"We said something like that could be an amazing asset to our community," Kroes said. "We met with a company called Natural Playgrounds that could put that kind of a nature-inspired play space on a school playground."

Although no design work has taken place yet, the natural playground could include features like slides and tunnels built into mounds of dirt or a labyrinth made of rocks - more man-made than anything at The Pines. Kroes, who has three children at the elementary school, said a natural playground would stimulate imaginative and creative play as well as intellectual and physical growth.

It could cost as much as $90,000 to design and build a natural playground. Volunteers and donated materials could be used, which Kroes said would help reduce the amount of funds the group would have to raise. She said they're not expecting any money from the school district, considering school officials just implemented a spending freeze.

"We're going to have to raise all the money ourselves, either through grants or private donations," Kroes said. "We realize it's a tough economic time, but we're hoping we can make something happen."

Elementary school Principal Rick Retrosi said he's excited about the idea of a new playground and is pleased that the group is willing to take on such a project.

Retrosi said the current playground is usable, although some of its elements are no longer up to code.

"It is really starting to show its age," he said. "We've had to take down sections that were just starting to fall apart."

Retrosi said "there's a lot of emotion" tied up in the existing playground because of the community-wide effort that led to its construction in 1987. That's why he'd like to keep some of its elements.

"We should salvage what we can and build on that with the new concept," Retrosi said.

School board President Dan Nardiello said an upgrade to the playground is needed.

"I think it's great they're picking this up and carrying it forward," he said. "It has been on the school's radar for several years now."

Kroes said they'd like to have a new, natural playground in place by next fall, but she thinks that may be a little too ambitious. It could be built in phases, if necessary, Kroes said.

The current Lake Placid Elementary School playground was a source of some concern last year when tests found a trace amount of arsenic in some of its pressure-treated wood, as well as in the surrounding soil. The wood was later coated with an oil-based sealant to prevent any arsenic from leaching out.

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Contact Chris Knight at 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.