St. Pete parks damaged, nearly a dozen playgrounds remain closed after hurricanes

Damage to parks and playgrounds after Milton

Genevieve Curtis reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It's nearly been one month since Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's west coast, and the scars from the storm are still visible across St. Petersburg.

Crews are working to clean up many parks and reopen several playgrounds and city-owned facilities. St. Pete parks and playgrounds may not be the same for a while, as many were damaged by the back-to-back hurricanes.

"I’ve got a thousand trees down in parks alone, we haven’t tackled those yet. We have been working on public areas first," Mike Jefferis, the city's community enrichment administrator, told council.

READ: City approves $6.5M to clean up and protect Rays stadium after Hurricane Milton

City staff said 11 playgrounds in St. Pete remain closed because of storm damage. Several parks saw the worst damage, including Maximo, Lake Maggiore and Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, where more than 600 trees were downed.

Baseball fields and softball fields are playable, but many dugouts and facilities are gone.

"They may not look like they did pre-storm, but they are back open for use," said Jefferies.

Lake Vista Rec Center is another place that hasn't reopened with childcare being relocated to other facilities. The center was flooded with raw sewage.

MORE: Community helping St. Petersburg City Theatre recover from Hurricane Milton

"Our goal is to open that for summer play camp," said Jefferies.

The city said it doesn’t have a timeline yet on when the playgrounds will reopen for kids to use them. Jefferies said he knew it was important to council members.

"I know that many of you were interested in seeing those playgrounds return to service as soon as possible. We are working with our vendors," he said.

The city also has many leased facilities with damage, including the boat ramps. It's still unclear what the total cost of damage will be for city-owned and leased facilities, as the city gets assessments.

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