New playground equipment has been added to the Fourth Avenue neighbourhood park in Schumacher, a community in Timmins. “It’s beautiful. It’s perfect for my kids because they’re young and it’s great for that age group and it’s great to have it right close by our house,” said Amanda Quinton-Wielenga, a resident of Schumacher. Timmins officials said the new playground is part of the city’s recreation master plan, which identifies the importance of playgrounds and their maintenance. “This is a priority of our council to improve our recreational facilities and so it’s all part of the bigger master plan,” said Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau. “It gives us the opportunity to renew, to modernize the play structures that are there to make sure that they’re inclusive and accessible and that there’s a little bit of something for all ages.” Officials said the price for the new equipment and landscaping came in at around $50,000. “We’re going to continue every year,” said Fred Salvador, supervisor of maintenance and parks for the City of Timmins. “This one here has been a long time coming. For the longest time, what we had was a swing set here. We updated the swing set a couple of years ago and now a playground.” It’s welcome news for the Quinton-Wilenga family who loves to explore new places to play around in the city.
