New-To-You Playground

“They got new playground stuff over here,” says an excited Maddux Amatangelo, 4, to a reporter just getting out of his car at the municipal Mary Utsey Playground on Orange Grove Road.
“The entrance is right over here; c’mon, I’ll show you,” says Maddux, running the fence to where a sidewalk breaks through, leading a man he’s never met.
He’s right. Where there used to be several sets of tired swings, there now stands an enormous maze of bridges, slides and clambering apparatuses.
His mom, Ashley, a transplant from the Pittsburgh area, laughs at her youngest son’s enthusiasm. “This little guy told me, ‘I’m in love with this new park.’”
Told that the “new” equipment was actually transplanted from Ansonborough Park downtown, catty-corner from the aquarium, Ashley Amatangelo shrugs.
“I kind of guessed it wasn’t brand new when they were assembling it; you could see some rust on some of the bolts. It sure is nicer than what was here before.”
Dustin Clemons, deputy director of capital projects for the City of Charleston, said some of the older pieces had been spruced up or replaced on the jungle gym. “It’s good stuff; there’s plenty of crawling around miles left on it,” he said.
After some site work at Ansonborough Park, the city decided the equipment needed to go somewhere more fun could be had on it, and selected Mary Utsey – a shaded, 8-acre facility replete with tennis courts, a softball field, and other amenities.
The reinstallation, which included borders and woodchips, was completed Friday.
Clemons said the city spent $22,000 to move the equipment and that soon a $10,000 state parks grant would allow for fence upgrades later this summer.