by Geoff Fox
Town officials have scheduled a special town meeting for next Tuesday, March 26 to further discuss a splash pad in Widmeyer Park. Council members opened a lone sealed bid for the water recreation project during their March 12 town meeting.
Only one bid, from Splash Pad USA out of Utah, was received in response to the town’ s request for proposals. That proposal was for $595,000. The town had sent out four bid packets.
Town Manager Mike Faith opened the bid in front of town officials and those in attendance at the meeting, and with only one copy of the bid packet, gave town officials a few minutes to pass it around to take a look.
The town has $350,000 already set aside for any construction of the splash pad -$200,000 from Program Open Space and a $150,000 donation from the late Stanley Fulton, made in 2015.
Faith said another $90,000 was budgeted in the last town budget for engineering work on the splash pad.
Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. said the town could look at the plans and adjust what the contractor laid out to bring it closer to what the town has available.
Councilman David Kerns said nothing was set in stone, as it was just a bid to meet the town’s specifications.
“It doesn’t mean they have to spend that if that’s what we don’t want,” Kerns said. “We put specifications in there and we gave them up to this number we won’t accept any bid over this number.”
The town wouldn’t be voting on the design, they’d be voting on who they want to build the splash pad.
The town is responsible for the water, electric, and sewer hook up at the splash pad.
Faith said whenever the town flushes the fire hydrants, they need a discharge permit as they can’ t dump chlorinated water in the streams and river.
With a large pool, the town would need a discharge permit. However, with the town building a splash pad, the water could be discharged into the sewer system if it isn’t a lot of water. This would avoid the permit.
Faith said he was going to give the county the specs of the splash pad to see if it could bypass the permit.
The water itself is recycled, Faith said, and flushed at the end of the year.
In the recycling process, Faith said, the water is treated and goes through UV lights, coming out completely sanitary.
Kerns said a tank under the splash pad would hold around 2,500 to 3,000 gallons, which would be discharged at the end of the year.
Kerns said he was told substantial completion on the splash pad could be within 60 to 90 days from the start of construction, “depending on how soon we get back to them.”
When it was first proposed, the idea was to put the splash pad on the footprint of the old pool. With the addition of the pickleball courts in Widmeyer Park, the location is a little more to the west.
With the location of the courts, the former pool site is obstructed by the public restrooms that used to be the bathhouse for the pool.
By moving the splash pad to the west, closer to the road, it would be within eyesight of the adults playing on pickleball courts.
Faith added he didn’ t know if the old pool’s footprint would be stable enough to support the splash pad if they put it there.
Town officials are holding a special town meeting on Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m., to make any decisions.
This allows officials, who were seeing the bid packet for the first time, a chance to look over what the contractor has proposed.
