Youngstown celebrates Falkner Park improvements

Redesigned kids splash pad unique to the area

Story and Photos by Terry Duffy

Editor-in-Chief

On Tuesday morning, the Village of Youngstown celebrated improvements to its recreational splash pad at Falkner Park.

The children’s play area is a project of the new Friends of Youngstown (FOY) group, which was founded by Christine Rath.

Village officials met with First District Niagara County Legislator Irene Myers for a $4,500 check presentation. Funds for the project were provided by the Niagara County Community Partnership program.

Youngstown Deputy Mayor Rick Stortecky and Mayor Rob Reisman joined Myers at the celebration. Stortecky said this project came to be through the efforts of FOY member OC Allen, who had wished to create a welcoming attraction in the village for residents and visitors alike. From there, ideas and discussions for the splash pad improvements began to take off.

“OC Allen reached out to me prior to me being on the board,” Stortecky said. “He was asking me for money because he wanted to do things to the park. He said, ‘I’d love to paint the splash pad. I need money and I need a painter.’ ”

Stortecky said he initially considered taking on funding for the project alone, but the idea soon caught the attention of Myers. In their discussions, the new FOY nonprofit group came up and things began to happen.

“Rick Stortecky and I were having a conversation at a meeting and had asked if I had met Christine Rath, who had recently retired, moved back to her ‘hometown’ Youngstown, and formed the FOY-Friends of Youngstown Group,” Myers said. “Upon that introduction, Christine and I met for coffee and to discuss her plans for revitalizing the splash pad in Youngstown. I was excited to hear the plans, along with Christine’s enthusiasm for the project!”

Discussing her involvement, Rath noted FOY was officially formed as a nonprofit in 2023.

“We’re very new,” she said. “It stemmed off the need of being able to raise funds for recreational items to improve the village – activities for revitalization of the Village of Youngstown.”

“There’s a lot of grant money out there, and you need to be a nonprofit to access the type of funding,” she added.

Rath, who is also a member of Village of Youngstown Recreation Commission, worked with the Rec Department, village officials and the Town of Porter on this venture.

Things soon began to happen.

Stortecky reached out to mural artist Jessica Tiana of Ransomville, a family friend and founder and executive director of the nonprofit YE Art Studio in Lockport. From there, plans for the splash pad project – modeled after the children’s “Candy Land” game – began to take off.

The newly designed Falkner Park splash pad in Youngstown.

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“We do community murals like this one,” Tiana said. “We designed and put this together. It started last October and we put it in in June. Mr. OC Allen approached me on this, to set up this mural.”

Describing her work at the Youngstown splash pad, Tiana continued, “This one is interactive. The outside ring is styled very much like ‘Candy Land.’ We have moveable spaces (for participants), and you are the game piece.

“We have educational pieces on there like the alphabet; we have numbers; we have pattern recognition with the sailboats. We have directional (north, east, west, south). In the middle, we have pieces like a clock, so you can tell the time. (Children) can actually put pieces that they’re learning in school into use out here. It’s all interactive play.”

She described how a child’s interaction with their family or others will trigger the water reactions throughout the course of the “Candy Land” game. Pointing to a yellow clock symbol, she said, “If you have mom who says, ‘What’s 2 o’clock?’ You have (the child) put its arms out to make believe it’s 2 o’clock – that yellow piece out there.”

The pad can be interactive with a visitor’s cell phone guiding a child around the game.

The artist said the Youngstown splash pad is unique in that there is not another one like it in Buffalo-Niagara.

“This is full integration (for the child), using your friend, family, your whole body. It’s all learning,” Tiana said. “A lot of times, splash pads either lack cement; they have features that are brain-colorful, like an arch, with water coming down. In this case, it just has the three (water) spouts. And we wanted to make it a bit snazzier,” hence the “Candy Land” theme.

Myers said, “Hearing all of this, along with how much it would benefit the families in the community, I was able to help by securing funding through Niagara County Community Partnership. The funding gave the project the ‘thumbs up’ and, as you can see, it was completed and ready to go for this season!”

Tiana said she’d love to consider a similar project for other splash pads in the area. She mentioned the splash pad in Lewiston as one possibility.

Myers offered praise for the new FOY group and its ambitions for the village.

“I am excited for the Village of Youngstown to have Christine return to her hometown after retiring,” Myers said. “She brings a breath of air and enthusiasm to our community! She formed this group FOY and has big plans to bring some things back to life and spark to the community! She has a true love and passion for the area!”

For more information on the Friends of Youngstown, visit www.Foy14174.com.