Children’s Fountain, Bird Key Park to close temporarily

The Children's Fountain at Bayfront Park. Photo by Norman Schimmel

Both the Steigerwaldt-Jockey Children’s Fountain, located within Bayfront Park, and Bird Key Park will be closed temporarily this week, the city of Sarasota has announced.

The fountain will be turned off Tuesday, May 29, while Florida Power & Light performs scheduled maintenance on a nearby electrical transformer, according to a city news release. Visitors are invited to return the following day when the fountain will reopen at 10 a.m., the release says.

The Children’s Fountain is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the summer, as weather permits. It closes the day after Labor Day.

Bird Key Park. Photo by Norman Schimmel

The temporary closing of Bird Key Park will begin about 6:30 p.m. on May 29 and continue until dawn the next day, the news release says. That window of approximately 12 hours is needed while workers handle a project involving the replacement of both a water and sewer forcemain pipeline, city officials say.

The Utilities Department is replacing sewer forcemains on Bird Key, Lido Key and St. Armands Key. The entire project is expected to be completed by mid-December, according to the city news release.

“The City of Sarasota is dedicated to improving the reliability of its infrastructure to reduce the risk of potential sewage spills and maintain high quality customer service,” the news release says.

The City Commission has allocated $15 million over 10 years for infrastructure capital improvements, with forcemains and lift stations receiving the highest priority, the release says.

For more information about the Children’s Fountain, call 365-5318. For more information about the Bird Key Park closing, call the city’s Utilities Department at 955-2325.