Stacey Henry doesn’t mind that the five vacant buildings next to her Aliquippa, PA business were being razed Tuesday. She just wishes the closest building hadn’t ended up sitting on top of her playground.

Henry, owner of Today’s Kidz Child Care Center, 385 Franklin Ave., must replace the day-care center’s playground for the second time in less than a year, after the demolition spilled over onto the lot, burying her equipment and damaging the brand-new rubber surface.

“We just put $10,000 into that playground to get it back,” Henry said. “And now I have to come up with more to put it back together again.”

Henry said the small playground was destroyed in last summer’s floods, and she had it repaired with the hope that it would be ready as the weather gets warmer. She wondered whether the lot could have been saved if the demolition project had started at the east end of the block instead.

“There’s a vacant lot at the other end,” she said. “If they had started down there and pushed all the stuff the other way, I don’t think I’d have to go through this again.”

David Foringer, Aliquippa’s fire chief, said the razed buildings, one of which was burned during a series of arsons in the city last fall, were in bad-enough shape that workers were not permitted inside. That meant the project was proceeding the only way it could. Beaver County Community Development is in charge of the demolition project.

Rocco Bianco, project manager, did not return a call Tuesday afternoon, but Henry said she had already spoken with Bianco, who told her the county would help.

“He said he was going to bring some information down that would help us get started,” she said. “I hope that’s what happens. I can’t afford to pay for that playground all over again.”

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