TREASURE ISLAND — City commissioners rejected a shade structure for the Rosselli Park playground for the third time March 16, leaving children without protection from the sun heading into another sweltering summer.

Commissioners Arden Dickey, Chris Clark and Arthur Czyszczon voted against a series of options presented by the Recreation Department, citing the cost of an unbudgeted expense and a desire to prioritize critical infrastructure such as deteriorating seawalls.

Vice Mayor Tammy Vasquez, a proponent of the project, pushed back.

“We received emails from parents and grandparents talking about the urgency to get a shade structure for Rosselli Park,” Vasquez said. “This is the last-ditch effort to try and get it done before the heat of the summer. As the emails that we all received over the last few days stated, this is not a vanity project. This is a health and safety thing.”

Recreation Director Cathy Hayduke told commissioners Rosselli Park is the city’s only ADA-accessible playground. A large bottlebrush tree that once shaded most of the play area was destroyed by hurricanes Helene and Milton and had to be removed, leaving only two standalone stingray shade structures providing partial coverage on the east side.

Hayduke first brought the issue to the commission Dec. 2 and returned Jan. 5 with a budget amendment that failed.

This time, she presented three options. The least expensive was a Mega Span shade structure covering the entire play area at $137,180. An additional $28,400 would be needed to remove the existing stingray shades and relocate them to the swing area, though some of the work could be done in-house to reduce costs. Hayduke said $14,000 in leftover budget funds could offset the swing-area expense, putting the total budget amendment at $151,580. Two other options would have cost $177,572 and $184,626.

Vasquez said she favored the first option because the structure could be taken down before storms.

“The shade tree didn’t shade all of the playground, but it shaded a large percentage of it,” she said.

Dickey said he was originally opposed because of the price tag.

“When we looked at this the last time it was $196,000, and that was what caught all of our attention,” he said. “At that time we didn’t have it budgeted and we didn’t know how we were going to (handle it) financially, as far as revenue coming in.”

He said if the city was going to invest in shade, it should look at covering all its playgrounds, including the main one at Treasure Bay. But he acknowledged Rosselli Park has “practically zero shade.”

“I would like to see us budget these things for the next fiscal year,” Dickey said. “I don’t want to see us spend $196,000, or close to it, of unbudgeted money at this time.”

In backup materials provided to the commission, Hayduke noted the city’s other playgrounds already have shade. Isle of Palms is shaded by two mature oak trees and has a retrofitted shade canopy over the swing set. The Beach Pavilion playground, installed in December by Project Innovations, has a shade structure covering the entire play area. Treasure Bay has two standalone shade structures over the pirate ship and retrofitted canopies over the smaller play structure and swing set.

Clark said his position had not changed.

“I don’t want to approve any unbudgeted things for any commissioner, any district, or my own district, unless we get critical infrastructure things done first,” he said. “I got a couple emails about our seawall, and there’s other seawalls beyond my district that need to be replaced.”

Czyszczon agreed.

“That’s a lot of money that’s unbudgeted, and in my district there’s a seawall that’s caving into the Intracoastal,” he said. “Although I understand how important shade is, especially in our hot, hot sun, it’s just too much money right now.”

Czyszczon proposed planting large shade trees where the old bottlebrush once stood, an idea other commissioners supported. City Manager Charles Van Zant said the same thought had occurred to him, noting he had provided a shade tree for a playground in his former hometown.

Public opinion was split.

Resident West Evans said he sympathized with the children but sided with the commissioners.

“For 70 years children have played on playgrounds without shades on them,” Evans said. “They can continue to do that a little earlier in the day, a little later in the evening. Let’s focus on building the seawalls.”

Resident John Peterson urged action.

“Go over there in July and put your hand on that equipment and you’re going to come away blistered,” Peterson said. “The Astro Turf heats up. You can’t even walk on it. Critical infrastructure is important, but let’s think about our kids too.”

Commissioners asked Van Zant to explore the shade tree option. Mayor John Doctor said the commission could revisit the shade structure at budget time.