When the weather warms up, thousands of parents bring their kids to play in the fountain at Butler Park near Auditorium Shores.
Now the city says that has to stop. In fact, the city says this popular watering hole was never meant to be a place to cool off -- and officials want the public to stay out of the water.
Currently, the Liz Carpenter Fountain is bone dry -- the city has shut it down for repairs because it says people are clogging up the water filtration system.
The fountain opened in August of 2007. Since then, hundreds of thousands have frolicked in the streams of water spouting from the ground.
Monday afternoon, nanny Christy Neufeld brought 4-year4old Danny and 3-year-old Kristie to play in the water and was stunned to hear that once the fountain's back on, the city wants to keep little ones from splashing around.
"Ever since it opened, kids come here and play, so I was surprised to learn that it wasn't even meant for that at all," Neufeld said.
Many parents, like Sheili Glover, were not pleased to hear the news.
"It's kinda like a let-down. I mean, you kind of look for places that are easy to get to and kids will have fun and free of course," Glover said.
Victor Ovalle with Austin's Parks and Recreation department says new state health regulations require water in pools and splash pads to be 100 percent filtered and chlorinated. The fountain's water is not. The city says it was never intended to be used for recreation. And the water filter can't handle the foot traffic.
"They're tracking in dirt, they're tracking in grass and it's causing the filter to shut down and shut down the entire system," Ovalle said.
In order for this fountain to remain open to the public, the city would have to hire lifeguards to monitor the five shallow pools that are around the fountain.
City officials plan to put up numerous signs warning parents about the water filtration issues and discouraging people from playing in the fountain -- but they admit, that probably won't keep many people out of the water on a hot day.
But if the fountain continues to have to major system problems, the city says it may be forced to shut it down for good.
There are plans to build a splash pad on the other side of Butler Park, but there was no word on when that could happen.
