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$4.5 million splash pad opens at MLK Park

Chris Caya/WBFO News

After a lengthy delay, officials cut the ribbon Friday on a new, state-of-the-art splash pad at Buffalo's Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. The $4.5 million pad features 300 fountains spraying water 15 feet high. In the fall and spring, the pad will convert to a reflecting pond and in the winter it will be an ice skating rink. 

The splash pad is the largest of its kind in the country.  It can be set to different patterns from a computer at City Hall. 

The water feature was supposed to open last summer, but issues involving the project's contractor Man O' Trees delayed completion of the project by nearly a year.

“This is a wonderful day for Buffalo and the Martin Luther King Park neighborhood,” said Mayor Byron Brown. “As I said from the start, we wanted to build this world class feature, and we wanted to build it right.  Today, I’m excited to count the new splash pad among the city’s great amenities, another positive sign of the continued progress we’re making to strengthen neighborhoods, attract new residents and investment in Buffalo.”

Common Council member Demone Smith, who represents the Masten District, says the project represents just part of the transformation happening on the city's East Side.

"The community said 'This is important to us,'" Smith says. "We got it done."

"This is a world-class spalsh pad and it should be world-class because for those of us that love Buffalo and love its people, we know that our people are first-class," says Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes.

To help cover maintenance costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield is donating $1 million.

Credit Chris Caya/WBFO News
Mayor Brown and community leaders cut the ribbon after a nearly-year-long delay.

"We really do believe that the parks contribute to the health of communities in giving people the opportunity to be outside and engaged in physical activities, so this is consistent with our mission of enhancing the lives of the people that we serve," says company President and CEO Alphonso O'Neil-White.

The city's 10 other splash pads will open to the public Saturday. City pools open July 1.

Monday - Friday, 10 a.m.. - 2 p.m.
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