My name is Eric Bacon and I am the Director of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Camillus. It was my department that was/is responsible for the planning, development and management of the splash pad. To say that the splash pad has been popular would be an understatement. I have been to the splash pad at least twice a day since it has opened. I can assure you a lot of time, energy and planning went into this project and continues now as well. The splash pad has been open for not quite two weeks. We have added garbage cans, will be adding a no smoking sign, will eventually be adding new benches compliments of a local donor and permanent no parking signs will be added as well.
Just other random clarifications
The water is regular chlorinated tap water and is not recycled. The splash pad is a glorified shower. You won’t get sick.
The Friends of Camillus Park is a not-for-profit group made up of volunteers who have done and continue to do great things for the park. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! The Friends group was not responsible for the planning and development of the splash pad. The management of the splash pad is the Parks and Recreation Department’s resonsibility.
Rules. The rules were developed after extensive research and are similar to other splash pads across the country.
Supervision. Like a majority of splash pads, we have made the decision to have our splash pad be unsupervised and use at your own risk. Most public splash pads are operated this way and done so very successfully. Staffing the splash pad with an 18 year old student would not take care of some of the issues mentioned on the forum. At this time, we will continue to operate the splash pad in this fashion.
As I stated, I have been to the splash pad frequently. I absolutely love going into the park and seeing children and their families laughing and playing. In general, it is a huge success. Is is perfect? Of course not. Any place with a large group of people will create issues. I/we will continue to monitor the park closely and make changes if necessary. I felt it was time to put some type of response to the number of posts I have seen on Camillus Community Conection. Based upon the pure volume of posts, I would say the splash pad is a hot topic. A big “thank you” to Dianne for her oversight on this topic and forum. The splash pad should bring us closer as a community rather than divide us.
I am not going to get into a question and answer session on Facebook. I would welcome your questions or comments, please feel free to call me at the Parks and Recreation office at 487-3600. In my opinion, conversation is much better than Facebook posts or emails. I did feel; however, with the amount of “chatter” on here, I did need to provide some type of response.
I hope to see you in the park!
Sincerely,
Eric Bacon, MS, CPRE
Director of Parks and Recreation