The often-troubled towering fountain in Delaware Park's Hoyt Lake is back in operation. It's important to the ecology of the lake since that fountain sucks water from the bottom of the lake and aerates it as the water circulates up into the air.
"Hoyt Lake does not have any type of feed. It does not have inflow or outflow," said Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy Executive Director Stephanie Crockatt.
For generations, water from Scajaquada Creek flowed through the lake. Because of pollution and debris, that changed years ago and the creek flows through an underground culvert from just west of Delaware Avenue to near Lincoln Parkway.
The fountain works to aerate the water.
"It keeps the algae level down and it's just something nice to look at, as well. But, for the health of the lake, it does infuse a bit of oxygen," Crockatt said.
With boats from the Buffalo Maritime Center, the fountain was moved more toward the lake middle and tied down and re-started.
"It's such a beautiful feature and it's such a nice complement to the lake that we do everything we can to try to get it up and running as soon as possible and it usually is running from Memorial Day to Labor Day," Crockatt said.
