Turn the drinking fountains back on!

A simpler solution is to just just turn the drinking fountains back on.

Of course if you think back a while the reason the government turned off all the drinking fountains in the park was to keep out the homeless people. It would be a cheaper solution to turn the drinking fountains back on and let the homeless drink cheep tap water instead of expensive bottled water!

Of course now the government is bragging that they are great guy because they are giving homeless people water bottles. Hey the homeless people wouldn't need the water bottles if the goverenment would turn the drinking fountains back on.

Source

Rangers out to help homeless people in Mesa parks

by Dustin Gardiner - Aug. 1, 2009 07:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

As the afternoon temperature in Mesa's Kleinman Park pushes 112 degrees, ranger John Goodie is making sure the park's less-fortunate visitors stay well hydrated.

Seeing Goodie's truck, about a half-dozen sunburned, sleepy men and women come over to get a bottle of the ice-cold water he is passing out from a red cooler in the truck's bed. Goodie says many of them are homeless or down on their luck.

Other park visitors are sleeping on the grass beneath shade trees, so Goodie takes the water to them, and wakes them up to make sure they're doing OK. "We've seen people who cannot get to water," he says. "To many of them, it is a lifeline."

It's a service Mesa's park rangers don't have to provide, but they do it anyway.

Starting July 1, all four Mesa rangers began carrying water bottles to hand out to homeless people in city parks. The water is donated as part of the city's Hydration Donation Campaign , which asks residents and businesses to bring bottles to several drop-off locations.

Mesa's hydration campaign was launched in 2006 after a summer heat wave killed 32 homeless people in the Valley the year before.

Water donated for the campaign has traditionally been given out to families who visit one of the city's shelters. But the shelters are miles away from some parks, and most are closed until the late afternoon or evening, leaving the homeless without access to clean, cold water.

"During that time there's really no where for them to go," said Lisa Wilson , human services coordinator for Mesa.

So, Mesa's park rangers came up the idea to take the water to the people in need. They generally distribute water in parks on the city's west side where there is a greater need.

"We're around these people, why can't we put the water on the trucks?" asked Roy Nunnally, lead park ranger.

Nunnally, who came up with the idea for the program, said the water is only given out to those who most desperately need it.

He said there was one incident where the water might have saved the life of a man who was severely dehydrated and refused to seek medical care. A ranger brought the man water for several days until he agreed to go to the hospital, Nunnally said.

When the program first started, Goodie said some homeless people were uneasy about being approach by park rangers. Now, they run to them for water.

"People are waiting for us," he said. "You'd be surprised just at the look on their face when they get a bottle of cold water."