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Ann Morrison Park fountain set to be removed this month

The Ann Morrison Park fountain will be replaced with a 70-foot long, ground-level water tunnel with water jets and LEDs.

BOISE, Idaho — Out with the old, in with the new. 

Ann Morrison Park's 1990's-era raised fountain is scheduled to be removed by the end of this month. Boise Parks and Recreation Department Director Doug Holloway says it has outlived its life expectancy, replacement parts are hard to come by and it's not safe for kids to play in because they could fall out onto the concrete.

Once the demolition is finished, work will start on its replacement, a 70-foot long, ground-level water tunnel with water jets and LEDs.

"The best day of my life will be when I can come down to Ann Morrison Park and see that fountain covered with kids, and that's literally what they will be able to do," Holloway said. "The two seated areas that you see on each side of that 70-foot footprint also has an opportunity to sit there, but there's what we call water weirs where water will actually be spilling out of the seats as well. But what I think would bring joy to all of us is just to see that whole tunnel filled with kids playing all day long in the hot summer sun when they're visiting Ann Morrison Park."

Boise Parks and Rec's website says, with the press of button, the water jets will run through water show sequences. The project will cost just under $2 million.

City money and donations of $325,000 from the Harry W. Morrison Foundation and a $100,000 donation from the Morrison Knudsen Foundation will pay for the project. An opening date for the new fountain has not yet been set.

The city is also getting ready to start work on projects under its Pathways Masterplan to add more than 110 miles of pathways around the city, and working to figure out what to do about two historic, art-deco, above-ground public swimming pools that have seen better days. 

Parks and Rec Director Doug Holloway talks about it all this Sunday morning at 9 a.m. on Viewpoint on KTVB.

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