WENDELL — The Friends of the Wendell Free Library have agreed to fund $25,000 associated with replacing the damaged play structure removed from its property in September 2023.

Library Director Miriam Warner explained the wooden structure was dismantled once the tree it was connected to was severely damaged by the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees.

“There just wasn’t an economical way for the town to take down the tree that also spared the structure,” Warner said.

She and former former Library Director Rosie Heidkamp attended a recent Wendell Selectboard meeting to detail the plan. Warner said a small group of people has been talking about replacing the play structure since it was removed.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” she said.

Selectboard Chair Laurie DiDonato read aloud a question Meagan Sylvia posed remotely about play structure maintenance, as the Friends of Wendell Free Library will cover the installation costs.

“I think we’ve worked pretty hard to really keep in mind that long-term maintenance. Each iteration has become a simpler version,” Rosie Heidkamp said.

Warner said she thinks the play structure will be similar to the previous one. The maintenance, she said, will consist mainly of yearly checks and the replenishing of playground-quality wood chips on the ground.

“That’s stuff that the town had agreed to take on,” she said.

Heidkamp said the chips come from Jim Conkey’s sawmill in New Salem.

“So it’s not just your average wood chips that come off when somebody’s on the side of the road, you know, running a tree through their grinder,” she said. “It’s a special cut that ... takes the sharpness out of them.”

Warner believes the cost is $150 per load, which lasts about two years.

Heidkamp said the law requires a certain depth of material underneath play structures to cushion falls.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.