By the end of the week, police could start writing tickets to parents of children splashing in the fountain.
View full sizePeople wade in the water in Syracuse's Clinton Square fountain around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Police and city officials are trying to keep people from using the fountain as a pool.
Syracuse, NY -- The city of Syracuse has an ordinance called “interference with waters,” that says nobody should bathe, wade or swim in any waters, pools or lakes unless the parks commissioner says so. And you have to wear a bathing suit. It’s been the law since the 1960s.
Then came the Clinton Square fountain.
It’s a wading pool with an irresistible strip of dancing water. Whether you are 2 or 6 feet tall, it’s easy to find a place to stand where the water shoots to just your height, then washes down your back and into your shoes.
There is a sign with the friendly greeting, “Welcome to Historic Clinton Square.” Then the warning that getting into the water can earn you a $500 fine. That’s where Syracuse police Sgt. Gary Bulinski stood to do a radio interview in the blazing sun Wednesday afternoon.
After people showed up with beach towels and coolers on Tuesday, Syracuse police launched an education campaign to remind people that the fountain is not Six Flags. Police officers and parks staff did media interviews and police rode bicycles around Clinton Square a few times Wednesday to shoo people out of the water. At about 4 p.m., three police cars parked near the square, then drove away while dozens of people splashed on. At times, more than 100 people were in and around the fountain.
Police said they will give friendly warnings for a few days. By the end of the week, Bulinski said, police could start writing tickets to people 16 and older and parents of those younger than 16 who are found in the fountain. He acknowledged, however, that there are only two officers assigned to patrol downtown and they are stretched thin.
While Bulinski talked, the after-school crowd filed in for a soak. Children and adults chased each other around the spray. A baby sat peacefully with two women in a shallow end. A boy in a sagging diaper leaned into the fountain with his mouth wide open. Some wore swim suits. Most jumped into the fountain in their clothes. One ran naked.
A boy with a pink ball ran into traffic. He was following some adults who were loudly revving up for a fight. “This is not the time or the place,” one woman yelled before they took the scrape down the street. Nearby parents pushed baby strollers and enjoyed snacks at the picnic tables.
The Clinton Square fountain is free. It’s always open. No lifeguards boss you around. But there is also not as much chlorine as in a public pool. The city does not test the water quality. There are no bathrooms. There is no help for someone in trouble. There are metal grates that could snag little toes. The park is surrounded on all sides by busy city streets.
And some people who work in the offices around the square expect a quieter experience during their afternoon crossword puzzle.
Wendy Odom works in the building nearest the fountain — the air-conditioned offices for Manpower, Children and Family Services, a branch of SUNY Oswego and other offices occupied by people in high heels and business suits. The bathrooms are not for public use, but the fountain crowd says it uses them.
“This is a business district,” Odom said. “That’s no pool. It’s a fountain. It’s not disinfected. We go out there to sit on our lunchtime and we don’t want kids running around.”
The fountain has presented the city with a problem since it opened in 2001. Even the designers have said they intended for people to wade into it. It was meant to be interactive, a place to sit on the wall and dangle feet into the water. The pool slopes up to sidewalk level at each end, allowing a woman using a walker to ease out of the cool water Wednesday.
On most days, Syracuse police do not bother the people in the pool. It’s been open long enough that people talk about bathing there as a tradition they grew up with. This week, however, has been hot and the city pools are not open yet.
Syracuse Parks Commissioner Pat Driscoll said he and other city officials saw the crowd Tuesday and heard enough complaints to start enforcing the law.
“If you go to some other cities where you have similar situations, I don’t think you have people bringing in coolers and beach towels,” he said. “Having little kids run through there is one thing, but having large numbers of folks going down there and using it as a water park is really not the intended use.”
Driscoll encouraged people to use safer sprinklers set up in city parks and playlots, including Union, Skiddy, Onondaga, Washington Square, Lewis and Burnet parks.
At noon, two police officers rode their bikes into the square and urged people out of the water. They calmly got out and dried off.
Michael LeClair carried 4-year-old Beverly Bond to Clinton Square on his handlebars to cool off in the fountain. He said he’s been coming for years, and no one has ever bothered him. LeClair said he would wait on the sidelines until the police left, then he would get back in. It’s 90 degrees, he said, and there is nowhere else to go. He said he made sure Beverly wore shoes, so she wouldn’t hurt her feet on anything sharp in the water.
To Shyashia Jones, 3, Clinton Square is a place to jump up and down, swing your arms and laugh in gusts of water that shoot overhead. “She begged me to come down here,” said her mom, Andrea Jones. “Why is it such a big deal? As long as nobody’s getting hurt and the kids are having fun, I don’t see the problem.”
Contact Michelle Breidenbach at mbreidenbach@syracuse.com or 470-3186.