Sundance Square Sets Splash Time Limits
July 2,2014
Reposted from the Star-Telegram
Photo: Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram
BY SANDRA BAKER
sabaker@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — If you want to get wet in the new fountains at Sundance Square Plaza, you only have a four-hour window now.
Saying it wants to make sure that everyone can enjoy the plaza, Sundance Square said Wednesday that it is limiting the time that guests can frolic in the fountains to 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
“We have gotten enormous feedback about how guests like to use the plaza since its opening in November,” said Johnny Campbell, Sundance Square president and chief executive officer. “We have so many distinct groups of people who come to the plaza at different times of the day for various purposes. Children and families, couples, visitors from all over the world, and of course, the people who work downtown everyday love to come to the plaza.”
The policy change was met with some disappointment by fountain fans Wednesday afternoon.
“This is the first time we’ve been here,” said Aimee Cline of Fort Worth, who brought her daughters, Kiarra, 13, Cassidy, 7, and Kenleigh, 6, in the hot summer sun.
She also had 3-year-old Avery Maseef with her, who she watches for her best friend Andrea Maseef, who took a late lunch from her job in the D.R. Horton Tower to visit with her daughter.
The girls wore swimsuits underneath their clothes. The two women had planned to do this once a week this summer.
“This is the funnest splash pad,” exclaimed Cassidy Cline.
Tracie Cross of Frisco, Colo. brought her four daughters, Betty, 19, Bonnie, 17, Mary, 15, and Sally, 13, to run through the downtown fountains. The Crosses lived in Fort Worth for several years and were back visiting family and friends while on their way to Texas A&M to register their oldest daughter for school in the fall.
“I follow downtown Fort Worth on Facebook,” Tracie Cross said the fountains. “I love what they’ve done.”
Cross said it’s a shame that the time for playing in the fountains was being limited to daytime only. “Having family-friendly stuff to do in the evening down here is nice. You’ve got to beat the heat,” she said.
The warm weather has attracted a lot of folks to the plaza and kids to the fountains. Sundance encourages the fountain use and want families here, but decided to set a schedule so all groups, including downtown employees, can enjoy the plaza. Signs with the new hours were posted Wednesday.
Here’s the new schedule: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the fountains will be for viewing only; from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. they will be open to play in, but with no bathing suits or diapers allowed, and from 6 p.m. to midnight, the fountains will again be for viewing only.
Sundance Square opened the 1-acre plaza in November to great fanfare. The plaza includes the interactive fountain, an area measuring 50 by 60 feet, with 216 jets that will shoot water anywhere from 6 inches to 6 feet high.
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