CELORON, N.Y. — The Village of Celoron wants to make some much needed upgrades to the playground at the Lucille Ball Memorial Park.
The only problem? They've applied six times, and they keep getting denied.
"It's very important because we've upgraded everything in the park, we've done a boardwalk, we've done the parking lot, we've done the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel," Mayor Scott Schrecengost said. "The playground is the oldest item we have, and it's in the worst condition."
Though the park created in the 1960s, the playground was added to the park 25 years ago in the wrong spot.
"They put it in a pit. Being so close to the lake, they had drainage setup in it, but it got all full of woodchips and plugged up, and they were never able to fill it up, so it just backs up with water every spring," Schrecengost said.
Schrencengost says in order to make upgrades to it the village will need $150,000 from the state.
He sent photos of the flooding, but the state said the village needed to get more community input before they would approve the funding.
On Tuesday, the village held a public meeting to get some of that input.
Schrecengost says most of it was very positive and community members wanted to know how they can help. He says municipalities aren't allowed to fundraise though.
Schrecengost added the way the funding works is, once approved, the state would provide 75 percent of the money, while the village would need to pay the other 25 percent.
So even if the village eventually gets the funding from the state, they would still need to find out where an additional $40,000 will come from.
If you would like to help out, just make donations to the village.