Thousands of nails found in Woodstock school playground mulch

LeeAnn Atwood, the Vice President of Marketing and Development for Woodstock Christian Life Services that runs the Woodstock Early Learning center, walks across the playground at the center where maintenance workers found thousands of nails in freshly laid mulch. The company that provided the mulch has refused any responsibility. (Kristy Ann Mann photo)

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WOODSTOCK – When Melissa Norman learned that maintenance workers had found thousands of nails in the playground mulch at the Woodstock Early Learning Center, she was incredulous.

Norman, the assistant director of the childcare center near Routes 47 and 120 in Woodstock, also has a 3-year-old daughter who goes to the center and plays on the playground twice a day.

“To knowingly provide this to a childcare center, I just couldn’t believe it,” she added.

The mulch came from G & C Mill, a 10-year-old lumber and mulch company on Route 14 between Woodstock and Harvard. Owner Cindy Ojeda said she had recommended a cheaper natural mulch that was not made from reprocessed wood, but the maintenance director for Woodstock Christian Life Services, which includes the Early Learning Center, chose a cedar mulch made from recycled wood that Ojeda said could include nails that would not be caught by a magnet.

“I would never have put that cedar mulch [on the playground],” Ojeda said. “But this is my customer. Who am I to tell a customer no? If you choose this product, I’m not going to say, ‘Don’t buy my mulch.’”

LeeAnn Atwood, spokeswoman for Woodstock Christian Life Services, said Director of Maintenance Rick Madsen had specifically asked for a mulch without nails and had not been told that the cedar mulch could contain nails. He chose cedar because it would help keep bugs away, she said.

The Early Learning Center ordered 40 yards of cedar mulch and kept adding 20 yards at a time until it was up to 120 yards. Ojeda said she could not understand why the center did not make its complaint as the first 30 or 40 yards were being laid, rather than waiting until four days after the project was complete.

 Atwood said the mulch originally was spread by a machine, so the center’s maintenance workers did not notice the nails right away. When a maintenance worker showed Madsen a handful of what appeared to be aluminum nails on Sept. 5, he found it unusual but did not yet think it was a problem, Atwood said.

As more truckloads of mulch were dropped off during the next two days, the workers collected nearly 3,000 nails, Atwood said.

Madsen called Ojeda to complain the following Monday, Sept. 10.

“She was totally in refusal to believe that there were any nails in it,” Atwood said. “She was really unwilling to cooperate and help us in any way.”

Ojeda said it was too late to take the mulch back or give a refund: She had already spent more than $1,000 to have the mulch processed and delivered and was out about $3,000 worth of product. She could not resell the mulch as cedar because it had been mixed with the original mulch on the playground, she said.

A local group that did not want its name released has offered to provide free mulch for the playground, which should open again in about a week, Atwood said. For now, a six-foot tall pile of woodchips and nails sits in the Early Learning Center parking lot. Jim Tomasello of Tomasello’s Landscaping in Cary has offered to remove the pile for a reduced cost, but he is having trouble finding a place to take it.

“Nobody wants it,” Tomasello said. “We’ve tried giving it away, but nobody will take it because of the nails in it.”

Mulch made from reprocessed wood is rarely used unless is it colored because the dry wood holds color well, said Tomasello, whose company sells mulch. But even for recycled mulch, the number of nails the Early Learning Center workers found seemed excessive, he said.

“I was very shocked that [G & C Mill] sold them something that was construction debris and had nails in it, and they dumped it right on the playground, knowing that kids were going to be playing in this,” Tomasello said.

“That was a lot of nails. You might see one here and there, but when you walk across the playground and see them sticking up,” that’s not normal, he said.

Maintenance workers also found rusty hinges, rocks, pieces of aluminum cans, chunks of plastic and wood pieces that were more than 12 inches long and sharp on each end.

No one was hurt by the nails and other debris because the playground had been closed while the mulch was being replaced, Atwood said.

Stacey Dougherty, who takes her three young children to the Early Learning Center each morning, said she was shocked to learn about the nails in the mulch on Wednesdaysept. 19.

“I was very surprised that a company would risk the safety of especially children, but people in general, for the profitability of their company,” said Dougherty, whose family owns Studio 2015 jewelry store on the Woodstock Square.

Dougherty said she would have liked to know about the nails as soon as they were discovered, but said she trusted the Early Learning Center staff to handle the problem and keep her children safe.

Atwood said the parents were told that the playground would be closed while they added more mulch, but they had not been told about the nails.