Boston families trying to beat the heat find some splash parks bone dry
As temps approached 100 degrees on Sunday, families grew heated as they disappointingly found some bone dry spray parks across Boston.
The city ahead of the heat wave said tot sprays are open at parks and playgrounds, but workers haven’t been able to turn on the switch at all 45 of them quite yet.
That meant there wasn’t much of a splash Sunday when families arrived at numerous city parks thinking the water would be flying during the hottest day of the year.
“I don’t know what they’re waiting for,” said Jonathan Recinos, who brought his 7-year-old daughter Alicia to Charlestown’s Doherty Playground for the sole purpose of using the tot spray feature.
“We’re pretty upset about it,” he added as they left the park on the 93-degree day.
Hannah Hoffman also brought her 3-year-old son Ethan Rivera to play at the tot spray.
“It should be open,” Hoffman said. “It’s almost 100 degrees out, and there’s no water. It’s crazy.”
Eleanor Flynn, 5, was left high and dry in the Rain Garden at Southie’s Moakley Park as it was found to be dry Sunday. Other children — including 8-year-old Axel Martinez and 6-year-old Omar Baez — showed up at the Frog Pond spray pool looking to cool off, but the spray pool was dry there, too.
The city’s spray features turn on each year on June 15. When city officials on Wednesday saw the heat wave in the forecast, workers started turning on the sprays on Thursday, which is a couple of weeks early, the city said in a statement.
In four days, the workers have turned 34 spray features on. There are 45 spray parks throughout the city.
“We are hoping by tomorrow (Monday) all are on minus a few that need additional parts from winter damage,” a spokeswoman for the city said in a statement.
Monday and Tuesday are also expected to be oppressive, with temps again in the 90s.
The spray parks take about 90 minutes to get up and running. There are two sprayers that broke over the winter, and city workers are still waiting for pieces to ship to fix the issues.
The Frog Pond spray pool always opens in the last week of June because lifeguards are needed there.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/34TB59b
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