Mid-August may seem a month or two late for a northwest Detroit splash park opening, but youngsters and parents living near Palmer Park are unlikely to complain.
Splash pad work in underway near near Merrill Plaisance Street on the park's southern end.
A public pool there has been shut since 2011 vandalism. A new "splash pad" with overhead sprinklers is being built on the filled-in former pool with corporate support, as Sara Jongeward reports in the Free Press.
The Palmer Park Splash Park is funded by Lear, a Southfield-based global automotive supplier. The park is part of a $5-million, 10-year pledge made by the company in 2010 to support the city’s revitalization efforts.
Lear also promised to build a picnic shelter and remodel the former pool house into a community center. Likewise, the city has promised to build a new playscape adjacent to the splash park area and is working with the group People for Palmer Park on the design. . . .
Last year, Lear spent $750,000 on a similar project in the Joseph Walker Williams Park in Detroit, according to the city.
Motion sensors will activate sprinklers so they don't flow constantly, according to a post by the neighborhood group. The splash play area will operate automatically between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
