BELLE — Improvements to the Belle City Park playground are underway, with city crews removing aging wooden equipment and preparing the site for the installation of new playground structures and accessibility improvements.

Mayor James (Pudd) Mitchell provided an update on the project during the Oct. 13 meeting of the Belle Board of Aldermen, reporting that the removal of the old playground equipment had been completed and work was progressing on preparations for the replacement equipment.

“We’ve took all the old wooden equipment down,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to start installing the new equipment.”

Mitchell said the delivery of the playground’s new border materials came around Oct. 14, allowing crews to begin installing the perimeter designed to contain the playground’s rubber surfacing.

The border will stand approximately 12 inches tall and is intended to prevent the rubber material from washing out of the playground area.

Crews planned to begin installation on the west side of the playground and continue around the perimeter, leaving the section where the new equipment will be installed unfinished until the structures are in place.

Mitchell explained that completing the border around the equipment installation area too early would require crews to repeatedly remove and reinstall sections as work progressed.

The project will also include an accessible entrance to the playground.

“There will be an entrance with a like a little bridge for handicap accessible,” Mitchell said.

City crews are also evaluating whether portions of the old playground equipment can be salvaged and reused at the Belle Community Center.

During his staff report, Jim Goben, public works director, said crews had begun transporting the removed equipment to the water tower property, where usable materials could be separated from deteriorated components.

“Want to save what we can to put out at the community center,” he said.

Goben indicated that the city hoped to reuse enough material to create a smaller play area with equipment such as swings and a slide.

“A lot of it was rotten,” he said of the removed wooden equipment.

In addition to the playground work, Mitchell reported that electrical repairs were underway at the park, where some streetlights remained out of service.

The mayor said the contractor performing the electrical work had experienced a family medical emergency that delayed completion of the repairs.

Mitchell said the contractor had assured him the remaining work would be addressed.

The mayor did not announce a completion date for the playground improvements during the meeting.