A successful opening week for Cane Creek’s new splash pad, despite a lot of rain and some safety concerns.
Vice Mayor Luke Eldridge said the facility has been overwhelmingly well-received by the community. Eldridge said the city is coordinating with installers to evaluate the slide run-out area and determine if additional bumpers or extensions are necessary to improve safety.
“We understand, kids are going to be kids, things are going to happen, but when there’s things we need to look at and address, it’s the first one we’ve ever done,” Eldridge said. “The company that did it, did a great job, it’s beautiful, but obviously when you got a lot of kids and you got a lot of things and you got water, things get slick.”
Eldridge said the splash pad will have scheduled closures for maintenance training Wednesday and Thursday between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Eldridge said the push-button adjacent to the park runs the water for 45 minutes at a time to help conserve resources when the park is not in use.
“I was very encouraged to see everybody excited about this,” Eldridge said. “This is a long time coming and I’m happy that we got it approved and we got it put in and again, overwhelmingly, everybody being able to be out there and have some fun, especially with all this heat coming in.”
Eldridge said the city is working to install permanent restrooms at the site and hopes to have them completed before the end of the current summer season. Eldridge said while the project is a priority, the city chose to open the splash pad early so families could enjoy it during the heat rather than waiting for the bathroom construction to finish.
“We wanted to get this up, we put this together, we wanted to get this up and running so they could enjoy it this summer, not wait on the bathroom,” Eldridge said. “That’s just one of the one of the little pressure points we got to work on once we get that up and running it’ll be, we’ll have everything there.”
Eldridge said the city is also open to discussing future water options for adults, such as a larger water park, but noted such a project would require a public-private partnership. Eldridge said the current focus remains on balancing community growth with necessary infrastructure improvements. Eldridge said the city is also considering a second splash pad location.
“It’s just timing, money, and where does it fit in the timeline of how we can operate and what we can do because we want to be mindful that we got so much growth, we want to be mindful of all these things and fiscally responsible for what we do,” Eldridge said.
