Time is almost up for Durham's UFO (or hamburger) at Garrett Road Park

The old fashioned red and yellow metal play structure that looks a little bit like a UFO ... or maybe a hamburger? ... is on borrowed time at Durham's Garrett Road Park.

The piece, which likely was installed sometime in the 1980s, is a long-time favorite for generations of Durham kids. In fact, it survived the playground's makeover back in 2011.

Park officials, however, plan to remove the piece from Garrett Road Park sometime this year and take it to Duke Park where a different kind of "kid" will get to play with it - the four-legged kind.

The piece, along with other aging playground pieces, will move to a new dog park that's being built at Duke Park.

"With all playgrounds, we follow a set of safety codes," said Tom Dawson, assistant director for park and trail planning in Durham. "Safety inspectors and facility management technicians are always looking for anything that starts to not meet code and then we have different procedures for moving things."

Added Dawson: "Some of these structures are really cool and the community likes them. They might not be to code for kids, but dogs don't have a code."

At Duke Park, Dawson will design an agility course for dogs that will include the Garrett Road UFO/hamburger; large metal tube slides, which once were in Durham's Indian Trail Park; and other pieces. The goal is to preserve different elements as they're taken down and find new uses for them, Dawson said.

Dawson said Garrett Road's piece is a perfect fit for Duke Park, considering it's history with "UFOs." In the 1950s, Ike Murray, owner of Durham Brazing and Welding, built a steel UFO, put his friend in it, hung the UFO from a zipline and let it crash land into the Duke Park Pool. (The pool was removed years later.)

"I love that and I love Ike," said Dawson, a metal worker in his free time. "So we wanted to get the UFO there and were thinking about ways to honor the great crash landing. That's one of the reasons why we wanted it at Duke Dog Park."

There's no exact date for when the piece might move out of Garrett Road Park, but, if you want to get one final climb in on the UFO, now's the time. The small playground also includes a tire swing; two small man made boulders to climb on, which are connected by a horizontal rope ladder; and a piece that spins kids around.

The shady playground, which also includes a picnic shelter, overlooks a small pond and a forested area that's fun for games of tag and hide-and-seek. A restroom building, which is getting some renovations now, sits nearby. Take a look ...