Home > Leadership > Mayor > Archive Press Releases > 2007 Archives > August 2007 > Mayor Brown and Councilmember Smith Announce City Repair of Drain Covers

Mayor Brown and Councilmember Smith Announce City Repair of Drain Covers in MLK Park Splash Pool

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Office of the Mayor
Peter K. Cutler
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City crews make repairs ordinarily covered by Erie County

BUFFALO–Mayor Byron W. Brown, along with Masten District Councilmember Demone Smith, this week announced at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park that the City of Buffalo replaced the park’s splash pool drain covers. Their action followed an accident that occurred in the splash pool on Saturday, August 11th, when a young girl’s leg was caught in one of the splash pool’s drains.  Buffalo fire fighters freed the young girl’s leg after approximately one-hour.
Mayor Brown noted that the 2004 agreement between the City of Buffalo and Erie County (that transferred city park oversight from the City to the County) identified maintenance and care of the park system as a County responsibility; under the agreement, the City is responsible for capital costs.
“Although Erie County has an agreement with the City to perform maintenance on Buffalo’s parks, I did not want this to become an issue of who is right or wrong,” said Mayor Brown. “What is important is the health and welfare of our city’s children, and ensuring that children and their families have access to our parks and recreational facilities, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Park’s splash pool.”
Mayor Brown said that in order to get the splash pool opened as soon as possible, he instructed the Department of Public Works to send workers to Jamestown to pick up materials to make the necessary repairs to damaged splash pool drain covers, saving days of shipping the materials from the manufacturer to the City of Buffalo.

The Department ordered additional drain cover materials in order to have enough materials available if any additional repairs are required before the end of the summer pool season.

“Since January, City of Buffalo Public Works crews have performed over 200 repairs at various city parks, ensuring that lingering maintenance problems were addressed and corrected,” said Mayor Brown. “We will continue to do what is necessary to guarantee that city residents have access to parks, pools and recreation centers that are safe and in proper condition.  We will also work with the County to make certain that these city actions are reimbursed.”

Following the swift action ordered by Mayor Brown, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park splash pool was reopened on Thursday, August 16th.