Jackson Free Press

The fountain in Smith Park is running again. The park, which sits in downtown Jackson along Amite Street, contains a large spill-over fountain with attached manmade creek that winds through the park, passing beneath pavement bridges and around concrete boulders and an outdoor center stage. For months, however, the fountain has been silent, the water drained, the concrete stream bed containing only leaves and bits of trash.

Numerous political organizations held rallies in the park throughout 2008, seemingly oblivious to the off-again/on-again nature of the neglected waterworks, but the water flows clear today.

President Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, which invests heavily in the downtown area on crime prevention and beautification efforts (and offers financial pre-planning for some proposed downtown building projects) said his association could not claim responsibility for the repair.

"We'd love to take credit for this, but I can't. That's our mayor who arranged for this, and I'm extremely appreciative of the prompt response to an immeasurable amenity to the city," Allen said. "It changes the whole complexion of the park."

Chris Mims, director of communications for the City of Jackson, explained that the pump had been out for about five months, and cost $7,269.89 to repair. The money came out of the city's parks and recreations budget.

Allen said Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. arranged for the replacement of the fountain pump at a fraction of the original cost.

"Harvey spoke at the July Red, White and Blue festivities at Smith Park on July 2, and I told him at the time that DJP would love to assist the city in getting the fountain up and running again," said Allen, a former city council member.

"From what I understand, the fountain pump was going to cost some $50,000 to replace, but one of the guys over there with the city was able to get a pump for much less that he refurbished and Harvey got the thing put in, got the fire trucks to fill it up with water and, man, it's just awesome."

Mims could not immediately confirm if the pump was a refurbished model.

Jackson Free Press reporters noticed activity in the park earlier this month, as city employees appeared to be removing leaves from the cement stream bed.

Previous Comments

ID

150927

Comment

What a good symbol of what is happening downtown -- and is about to explode. Damn the naysayers! (I love how media like the Ledger are trying to climb on the downtown Renaissance train years too late!) Other than the JFP, I'd say that only WAPT has shown itself to be a true believer in the city's downtown potential in recent years, doing positive stories instead of all the crime-mongering.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-08-17T12:21:55-06:00