The mother of 6-year-old David Puckett, who drowned in a pond at an Aurora park after wandering away from home, has asked the City Council to replace the pond with a splash park.
“This will make a negative into a positive,” Stephanie Puckett said Wednesday.
Puckett’s son, David, on New Year’s Eve. beneath the ice on Jan. 3 after an .
“This is something our family is very passionate about,” said Puckett, 34. “I have seen about four kids playing in the pond and that is horrible. We don’t want anybody else to go through this.”
Puckett pitched her idea to the City Council at a meeting on Monday. And she plans to help raise money to pay for the work.
“I do think it is a good idea,” City Councilwoman Barbara Cleland said. “It has got to be really difficult for those people that live around there. This way we don’t have the fear of another kid getting hurt. I think it could be very much a positive.”
Puckett said she and her family will set up a fundraising account in a local bank. “We are going to start doing things to raise awareness. We are going through a bank, because (crowd-funding websites) take out a percentage, and we want all the money to be there for it.”
Before Aurora makes a decision, both the city’s parks and recreation and water parks will have to determine if the project is feasible, Cleland said. She also wasn’t sure how much it would cost to convert the pond to a splash park.
Aurora City Council will have to approve the plan.
