Making a splash in Norwalk

NORWALK — If patience is a virtue, non-profit group Restore Norwalk must be amongst the most virtuous organizations around. After more than two years of persistence, Restore Norwalk on Tuesday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in celebration of the official opening of the splash pad at Suhr Family Park. Restore Norwalk board president Stephanie Spencer had the honor of cutting the ribbon. "I want to say thank you to everyone who supported us. We couldn't have done it without all of their donations," Spencer said before snipping the ribbon with the Chamber of Commerce's scissors. "It finally paid off two-and-a-half years later." Restore Norwalk was formed in response to growing concern about limited recreational options for children in the city. Since the group's inception in 2017, it has led efforts for a canoe rental at Veterans Memorial Lake Park and now the splash pad in Uptown Norwalk. Board vice president Matthew Dobson said the group asked for suggestions to make sure they were doing something its supporters wanted. By a large margin the most popular response was people wanted a splash pad for families who can't afford to pay entry to Ernsthausen Recreation Center. "We wanted to make sure we weren't just doing something we thought would be cool," Dobson said. "The overwhelming support was for doing something like a free splash pad at one of the local parks." Once the group settled on a project the rest of the details fell into place. "Norwalk has a lot of great parks with lots of activities for kids," Dobson said. "We looked at Suhr Family Park and it was one of the only ones without that did not have a playground or anything for kids to do in it. We thought this would be a great spot." Norwalk mayor Dave Light praised Restore Norwalk for its work to improve the city and thanked people involved and the donors who made the project possible. "They started with canoes and they've been popular ever since," Light said. As he was watching the children laugh and play at the splash pad, Light thanked the project's donors, the city's general services department and all the people who supported the project. "It's a great thing for the kids and council supported this all the way through," he iterated. The $76,000 project went through several transformations as those involved tried to tailor the project to fit the character of the area. "We downsized it three times to get it to where it's at today," Light said. "It's very popular and it fits in perfectly here." The splash pad will be open through September before closing for the season. Moving forward, the splash will close seasonally on Labor Day.