Former NRPA leader heads ASTM Subcommittee.

Former NRPA board member and president Kenneth S. Kutska has been appointed chair of ASTM Subcommittee F15.29 on public playground equipment. The 177-member subcommittee meets three times a year to maintain the Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use.

Kutska says that he has big shoes to fill. Fran Wallach retired from the chair position after being with the playground safety movement from its inception in the 1970s, he said. "Fran had appointed me as vice chair of the subcommittee, so I humbly accepted the chair position after Fran's many years of service"

He is currently the director of parks and planning for the Wheaton Park District in Wheaton, Ill. Kutska helped found the NRPA National Playground Safety Institute and continues serving on the NPSI board and is an instructor for the Certified Playground Safety Inspector course.

Kutska has been a member of ASTM since 1989 and is a member of both the larger committee on consumer products as well as a separate committee dealing with sports equipment and facilities. During his time with the consumer products committee, Kutska has made presentations at workshops on playground safety issues and has written numerous technical articles, including chapters of textbooks used in the National Playground Safety Institute certification course.