The children’s playing grounds in the municipality of Chisinau must be reequipped and outfitted with modern installations, the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. At Monday’s meeting of the Chisinau City Hall, the mayor stated that the municipality will soon initiate a program to replace the old, Soviet-type installations on playing grounds with modern ones, of a higher quality. According to the cited source, the present installations in the capital city’s parks and in yards are old and dangerous for children. The mayor said that the playing grounds do no longer meet the current standards. Dorin Chirtoaca considers that in order to reach the European standards, the municipality should be outfitted with children’s playing grounds with well-built installations made from materials that do not endanger the children’s health and that would create a different environment in the yards of the apartment buildings. The mayor said that the laying of the playing grounds is not at all cheap. The cost of a playing ground varies between 20,000 and 40,000 euros. The mayor general intends to obtain money from the balance of the municipal budget and from the savings made by the divisions with the aim of covering expenses that are not planned in the budget. Deputy mayor Nestor Grozavu said that the playing grounds continue to be built according to the old model because the Soviet-type installations are twofold or even threefold cheaper. Even if this equipment is not so costly, the municipality should not encourage the financing of outdated installations. “We are not so rich to afford cheap things,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. According to the mayor, there are only several new playing grounds that were built by private economic entities. Therefore, the mayor demanded that the local public administration should directly engage and contribute to the development of the given project. Deonisie Boaghie, the head of the General Housing-Dwelling Division, considers that the problem of playing grounds should be addressed after thoroughly analyzing the situation in the whole municipality. The assessment must reveal how much money is needed to cover the related expenses. The playing grounds in the Public Garden of the Cathedral will be soon changed under a project put forward on the initiative of the wives of the ambassadors working in Chisinau. The mayor general said that a special meeting on the topic should be held so as to hasten the works.