Take a drive past East End Park on East Main Street in Thurmont or past the Community Park along Frederick Road and you can’t help but notice the new equipment that seemed to erupt overnight. After school and on the weekends, kids are flocking to the playgrounds to enjoy the new brightly colored climbing gyms, slides, swings, and rock walls. The new additions at the park are bringing smiles to kids of all ages.

The new equipment is part of a town-wide park restoration project to bring the town’s play equipment up-to-date. Aging equipment with wood surfaces and protruding screws were unsafe by today’s standards and many pieces of unsafe equipment were removed completely last year. Recently more equipment was removed and in its place came much, much more.

New equipment is also on its way for the small community parks in the areas of Pleasant Acres and Orchard Hills. New fencing is coming to the Eyler Road Park and repairs to the existing fence are planned for the Community Park.

The project was funded by a Project Open Space grant said Thurmont Commissioner and Parks Commission liaison Wayne Hooper. Program Open Space is a nationally recognized program that was established under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1969. The program provides dedicated funds for Maryland’s state and local parks and conservation area and according to the DNR website, more than 5,000 individual county and municipal parks and conservation areas exist because of the Project Open Space program.

"We’re glad we’re finally getting things in that the children can use this spring and summer," said Hooper. "Look for more park beautification projects coming soon," he added.

A local 4-H group and the Thurmont Garden Club have shown interest in doing some flower and gardening projects at area parks.

The playground equipment contract was awarded to Playground Specialists of Thurmont.