Vandals damage floating playground along Platte River

LOUISVILLE, Neb. (WOWT) - State crews are assessing damage at one of its recreation areas along the Platte River.

Because so many people use the obstacle course playground at the Louisville State Recreation Area, it’s hard to know who is responsible.

With kids headed back to school, the hours had already been reduced for the popular water attraction. Now it’s shut down altogether.

During the summer kids would clamor to the floating playground south of the metro to cool off and be entertained.

It’s like a giant maze where parts can connect in different ways for climbing and jumping.

But Game and Parks has pulled at least eight pieces of the set off to the side because vandals have damaged them.

Workers found holes of various sizes in the pieces after they had sunk. Divers were needed to release the playground from the anchors.

It’s not clear how much damage there is.

Crews are trained to patch up spots but once they fix the obvious holes they must reinflate the piece to see if they missed anything.

The cost is more about the time and energy repairing it, rather than replacing pieces at this stage.

There are 70 pieces total to the floating playground, and with eight damaged it has been closed for now.

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