New Bethel playground

By FRITZ MAYER

BETHEL, NY — A spanking new playground was unveiled beneath blue summer skies as children scampered over the slides and bars.

The $75,000 installation, located next to the Town of Bethel swimming pool on Old White Lake Turnpike, was inaugurated on June 27 with a host of residents and officials joining the proceedings.

Susan Runnels, manager of the Bethel Local Development Corporation, said half of the cost came from a matching grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Twenty-six thousand dollars of the town’s portion of the cost came through the Sullivan Renaissance program in the form of the Golden Feather Award, which the town won in 2007. The rest of the funding came in the form of sweat equity or labor from the Bethel highway department and residents of the Daytop facility in Swan Lake.

Supervisor Dan Sturm said the playground “allows families to spend quality time together in these economic tough times with virtually no cost to the town.”