Good samaritan offers to fix vandalized playground

WEST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- It took years to raise the money to build it and just moments for vandals to damage it.

Just two weeks after christening their state-of-the-art $100,000 playground, workers at Pagels Elementary in West Haven found vandalism this week.

The kids are alright, even though their brand new playground has already been bruised by vandalism.

"Tuesday morning we got notified that there was some damage to our new playground," said Gary Palermo, Principal.

The state-of-the art $100,000 tot lot at Pagels Elementary in West Haven, packed with interactive stations, opened just two weeks ago.

"From the Superintendent's office and the Mayor's office to the incredible people here at Pagels, who helped create this wonderful playground, they did the drive over the past two years," Palermo said.

It could have been worse, the damage was confined to the plexiglass shield, but it had only been there for two weeks.

"Obviously we were very upset," Palermo said, "the boys and girls just love being out here."

And as News 8 was covering the story, we found out that repair can happen almost as quickly as the damage did. A local contractor read the story in the paper Friday morning, and just like that he was on the phone.

"I got a phone call from a local contractor named Anthony Cordone, and he wanted to let me know that he wants to cover the fee, it really doesn't matter what it costs," Palermo said.

"I knew a lot of people had volunteered to do this, and I just felt that somebody needed to do something so they could get this repaired right away," Cordone said.

Anthony Cordone builds homes in the area, but has no personal stake in the playground. The soft-spoken construction man says the only real inspiration he needed was youthful exuberance.

"It feels good that they're not getting in trouble and there's things for them to do," said Cordone.

A humble gentleman who'd rather let his money do the talking, and the repairing.