Students entering Calaveras School this fall will have the chance to slip down a slide, run across a bridge and hang from modernized monkey bars, after a new playground takes shape at the campus this week.
The original structure was destroyed in January by a fire that caused the equipment’s metal frames to buckle. Hollister police investigators believe it was arson.
The cost of the new equipment was about $69,500 but was covered by the Hollister School District’s insurance carrier with the district paying a $2,000 deductible, explained John Teliha, the district’s director of facilities, in an email to the Free Lance. No bond money was used to replace the equipment, he wrote.
Most of the new structure will be installed Tuesday and should be completed by the end of the day Wednesday, wrote the director of facilities in the email.
“The District is very appreciative of the efforts from our partners at the City of Hollister and local businesses that assisted in the clean-up of this unfortunate act of vandalism,” Teliha wrote.
The city offered equipment and staff to help remove the damaged playground material and ensure the area was safe until the equipment could be replaced, the director of facilities wrote. West Coast Rubber Recycling, a local business, helped haul off the damaged equipment, he wrote.
