BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — With the extreme heat and humidity, there’s no better place for kids to cool off than a splash pad, like the one at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Buffalo.
But damage to the splash pad caused a temporary shutdown this past weekend and earlier this week after community members voiced outrage at what they saw.
WATCH: Splash pad at Buffalo's MLK Park repaired and now open after vandals caused damage
Earlier this week, Bruce Warrick posted a video while at the splash pad to voice his outrage at city leaders.
“It's 92 degrees outside today, and they've got to swim in dirty water," Warrick said. "This is supposed to be Martin Luther King Park splash pad. They’re swimming in dirty water.”
“We want to know when you all going to fix this for our children,” said Warrick.
Warrick also complained that many of the sprinkler heads were not working to shoot the water into the air.
Masten District Common Councilwoman Zeneta Everhart posted a message saying the splash pad was vandalized back in June. She explained that people pulled the grates up and stuffed all types of items into the drains.
“The splash pad was vandalized on Juneteenth weekend," Everhart said. "Unfortunately, that's when we first started to see the water continuously back up. I don't understand why anyone would go down there, pick up the grates, break the knobs, and pull out the sprinkler. I don't understand that.”
“It took a while for them to be able to dig all of that out of there, that’s why the water was building up,” Everhart described.
She also said that she was aware of the damage and brought it to the attention of the city.
“I live right there, I go there all the time, and so I actually called the commissioner of DPW, and I said, 'What's going on with this,'” explained Everhart.
Everhart said by Tuesday at 1 p.m., the splash pad was fixed and it was up and fully running.
The Masten District lawmaker urged community members to “respect” the city parks and property.
“Please don’t vandalize our splashpad,” Everhart stated.
