In a far corner of Washington Market Park is the toddler’s equivalent of buried treasure.

With all the shovels, chicken wire, sheets of plastic and other junk piled around it, you would never know that all-wood, custom-made play equipment, costing $24,000, lies in a heap, untouched by children’s hands.

		It has been two years since the cleverly designed pieces arrived from Oregon, each created out of a single trunk of a tree. There are three big, climbable snails and a 12-foot-long train, with a chunky “engine” and three “cars.” They’ve been unused and out of sight all this time because they did not fit where they were supposed to—in the toddler sand area where a big red boat now stands. No one has figured out where to put them, or if they should go in the park at all. Some members of the park’s volunteer board of directors, convinced that ordering the objects was just a big mistake, have suggested posting them on eBay or donating them to another playground. Others think they belong in the park as intended. Next month Parks Department officials are scheduled to join board members in a park “walk around” in hopes of finding a home for the equipment.
The problem, said Fraya Berg, the board’s president, is aesthetics and safety. “Where will they fit with the theme and the feel of the park?” she asked. “And wherever they go they will have to be surrounded by safe play surface.”  Berg said she is concerned about the impact of the safety surface or the pieces themselves on the lawn. More bewildering than what to do with the objects is how they became homeless in the first place. Last year the final piece of play equipment was installed in the redesigned and expanded playground on the east side of the park. According to plans by the landscape architect Lee Weintraub, who designed the playground and equipment, one of three sections of the park—the sand-filled area intended for the youngest children—was to contain the boat that is now there, as well as all the wooden play objects. “Somehow there was a scale problem,” said Berg, who called the situation “shocking.” The bow of the boat is due to be severed because the Parks Department and some parents have deemed it, too, to be overly large for the space and its design inappropriate for toddlers. Altogether, the snails, train, and boat are said to have cost $90,000. Weintraub, who was the original landscape architect for Washington Market Park, had no comment when asked over the phone about the miscalculations. “It was a long time ago,” he said. “I have no recollection.” The manufacturer, Columbia Cascade, was asked to take back the equipment, but declined. “That would be a definite ‘no’, given the nature of the product,” said Steven Kirn, sales manager for Columbia Cascade. “They were manufactured specifically for this project and they were unique.”