Bureaucrat of the Week
Not long ago, Kelly Drive â surely the most crowded and heavily-used stretch of park in the city, at least on weekends â was largely bereft of a simple, but precious resource: drinking water.
There was a fountain near the art museum, and another about a half-mile away, at Lloyd Hall, where a kiddie fountain had been broken since last summer, causing children to attempt to drink from the adult fountain in an awkward, upside-down posture, as I noted in a recent column.
Fairmount Park Director Mark Focht told CP that fixing the fountain was "a major project," and that he couldn't say when it would be repaired.
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| Good work, Mark Focht |
But that fountain, as I note in this week's Man Overboard!, has miraculously been fixed anyway, just a few weeks later.
What's more, the park has seen the very recent unveiling of no less than two new drinking fountains along the East Drive.
This is a good thing: the Bicycle Coalition found in a survey of path users that water and bathroom access ranked first and second respectively in a list of desired improvements. And while these things might seem small, the difference between having and not having access to water and bathrooms can decide whether whole swaths of the path are accessible to some users, especially families with children.
So a big thumbs-up to the Department of Parks & Recreation, and to Mr. Focht for taking a few crucial steps toward restoring some of Fairmount Park's faded glory.
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