A well-used school playground next to Westmoreland Park is now a smooth dirt lot after Eugene School District 4J decided it was too expensive to maintain.
The playground was behind the Arts and Technology Academy, a middle school that opened in 2017, replacing Jefferson Middle School. It had several structures: swings, a geo dome jungle gym, a squiggly balance beam, parallel bars and a primary play structure that included a plastic twisty slide, a wooden bridge and several other features for children to climb on.
The equipment had been there since Jefferson and the Family School were co-located at the property, said Kelly McIver, 4J director of communications and intergovernmental relations…