Water attraction makes a big splash

DEERFIELD BEACH — An old hot spot for gambling is making a splash as a new hub for enjoying the Intracoastal Waterway.

City officials opened Sullivan Park on Saturday, delighting scores who mobbed the Riverview Road park’s splash playground and jungle gym. It will soon feature a walkway that goes under the Hillsboro Boulevard bridge and connects to The Cove shopping center.

Lighthouse Point resident Heidi Morris’ 27-foot motorboat glided into one of the park’s slips and her two children were off and running toward the splash park once they hit land.

Usually, the family’s boat trips are to restaurants, she said. “There aren’t any parks on the water like this, well, except for maybe the one in Delray, but that’s too far.”

The land that city officials feted as the best vantage point for views of the Intracoastal had been a shuffleboard court, but mostly dead space since a hurricane damaged the Riverview Restaurant in 2005. The Riverview had also been a private casino supposedly frequented by 1930s gangsters who needed to make a quick getaway in case the police showed up.

When the restaurant site landed in foreclosure in 2011, the city bought it. A $3.4 million transformation began last summer.

People visiting Sullivan Park will have to register their vehicle’s license plate and will be limited to four hours of parking. That was the compromise the City Commission decided on to reserve the park’s 40 parking spaces for park users — not for beachgoers who could park there and walk across the Hillsboro Boulevard bridge to avoid beachside parking fees.

Saturday, those arriving at the park by car had to use the Cove parking on the south side of the bridge, but Sullivan Park’s lot will be open today.

Adela Ferrari, 38, noted the trouble she had finding a parking spot, but was thrilled enough with the park to consider having her 4-year-old twins’ birthday party there.

“It’s a beautiful park with amazing views,” she said.

For its first day, the park’s 2,200-square-foot splash pad had a miniature army cavorting over a mosaic of people and fish enjoying the water. Screams of delight rose along with the geysers of water.

The Deerfield Beach Kiwanis Club donated the funding for the water attraction and about 40 volunteers put the tiles in place.

Bob Parton, 72, a member of the Kiwanis Club and a Hillsboro Beach resident, estimated he put in 1,500 tiles.

“It really came out nicely,” he said.

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