Opening up Jamestown’s parks — including opening the bathrooms so that parents of young children don’t have to end trips to the park early because their toddler needs bathroom facilities — is good news for families who use the parks throughout the spring and summer.

Another wise decision is to take this summer to reformat the city’s summer playground program. The program would have cost about $30,000 this summer, according to Mayor Eddie Sundquist, but city officials decided it wasn’t possible to have the program this year because of COVID-19 precautions and an additional $30,000 in costs.

That decision is a wise one, because participation in the summer playground program has been sparse in past years. At Bergman Park, oftentimes, children visiting the park from other town and village recreation programs outnumber the children attending the city playground program. The existing program also doesn’t dovetail well with the Jamestown Public Schools’ Summer LEAP program.

Revamping the summer playground program makes sense, particularly if the LEAP program is providing a better experience for hundreds of city children than the city has been able to provide on its limited budget and limited vision.

Perhaps targeted events in the city parks geared toward children, in collaboration with the LEAP program, is a better use of the city’s money.