Fountain off limits to pets, children
Safety is behind policy change at hot weather favorite in Corning.
By LARRY WILSON
Star-Gazette Corning Bureau
May 25, 2006
CORNING - For the first time since Riverfront Centennial Park was developed in 1993, children will be prohibited this year from playing in the park's water fountain.
Corning Inc., which owns the Tioga Avenue park, installed signs Wednesday warning of potentially unsafe water. The signs prohibit running in the fountain area and also ban pets.
Rick Weakland, director of corporate real estate, said an incident last year in which people became sick after visiting a Geneva-area water park led to the company's decision.
"It did cause entities like us with fountains to reconsider how we manage the use of the fountain," he said. "We want to make sure people are aware of the potential risk."
Weakland said the new rules prohibiting playing in the fountain will be enforced by corporate security officers. In the past, the fountain has been a favorite spot for families to let their young children cool off during the summer.
Corning Inc. said the fountain, which uses recirculated water, is routinely chlorinated. The parasite that contaminated the Geneva water park - cryptosporidium - is resistant to chlorine.
"The parasite is spread by human and animal fecal matter," Corning Inc. said in a news release. "Diapered children and animals in the fountain increase the risk of contamination. Ingesting contaminated water could result in severe gastrointestinal illness."
Corning Inc. said it is not aware of any previous injury or illness associated with the fountain. No cryptosporidium has been found there.
In addition, the fountain may be turned off for much of the coming summer for an upgrade to its treatment and filtration system. That project is expected to take several months.
"The fountain was initially designed to serve as an ornamental water feature and was never intended to function as a recreational aquatic spray ground," Corning Inc. said.
Riverfront Centennial Park was developed by Corning Inc. on the site of a former city parking lot and given to the city of Corning as a gift. In 2004, Corning Inc. took the park back in a trade in which the city received the former Penske Leasing property on East Market Street near Denison Park.
The signs posted Wednesday around the fountain say:
"Fountain uses recirculated water - May be harmful. No running in fountain. No pets allowed."
Weakland said the new policy "improves our ability to manage that risk (of people become ill) going forward."
Peigi Cook, director of the Corning Children's Center, said staff members often took children from the day care center to play in the park's fountain.
"It has been a regular part of what we do with kids in the summer," she said.
Cook said the center will replace the visits to the fountain with backyard sprinklers.
"It just means we won't get out and about as much," she said.
Corning Inc. notified the day-care center in advance of the new prohibition on use of the fountain.
"It's an appropriate response to an unfortunate situation," Cook said. "They handled it appropriately."
The new rules mean one family with a child at the center will be looking for a new place to celebrate their child's birthday.
"I have a family that was planning a child's birthday at the park," Cook said.
