Westlock is one step closer to its own splash park after the group behind the idea made its first presentation to town council last week.
Members of the Westlock Community Enhancement Society were before council at its Sept. 10 meeting to ask for support in getting the project off the ground by donating the required land and committing to covering its annual operating costs, ideally, along with Westlock County.
Council instructed administration to prepare a report further exploring the costs as well as the suitability and serviceability of the suggested location before it makes a decision on whether to support and budget for the project.
The group will arrange to speak to Westlock County council at a later date as well.
The society, whose members live both in the town and county, plans to fundraise $550,000 for the project, society president Kerri Lesyk told council.
The project includes not only a spray park, but a dry park, a gazebo, picnic benches, receptacles and all the water and power lines that need to be brought to the site.
Lesyk said the society is tentatively looking at Belvedere Park on the east side of town as the site, but are open to considering another space if a more suitable area is found.
“Our first goal is to build a wonderful and completely barrier-free spray park for the town. It’s a great way to enhance the town in many ways,” said Lesyk, listing off a dozen or so benefits including networking with other families, attracting new residents and keeping money in Westlock, as opposed to another town that already has a spray park.
Council peppered Lesyk with questions ranging from who is responsible for broken pieces to the amount of water being used to how it would compare to other towns’ spray parks.
Coun. Curtis Snell queried Lesyk on how much she expected annual operating costs will be.
“The highest amount would probably be $40,000-$45,000 and that’s with wages, maintenance, grass-cutting, water and power,” she replied, adding she is trying to minimize water usage to 500 litres per minute to save on costs, whereas most spray parks average around 800 litres per minute.
Coun. Murtaza Jamaly asked how many days of the year she expected the spray park to operate. Lesyk responded that depending on the weather she expects about 120 days of usage, from May long weekend to Labour Day weekend in September.
Coun. David Truckey asked how long she expects fundraising activities to go on before the park can be built.
“Optimistically two to three years, realistically three to five,” she said.
“It’s a large amount of money,” said mayor Ralph Leriger. “I’m glad you’re being realistic.”
The society has hired a grant writer and has already applied for several grants to get fundraising underway.
“Because this is a barrier-free option for families, the government is really big on giving grants out for this because everyone can use it ... We also want to approach businesses to buy a piece,” said Lesyk.
Deputy mayor John Shoemaker noted he has done a lot of research on spray parks in the recent past and thinks they’re “a great idea.”
“I remember when there was talk in this town of putting in the skateboard park. Everyone was concerned about all the injuries everyone would have, but it turned out to be one of the best investments this community has ever had. The kids just love it,” he said.
“I’m very, very encouraged to see a group of individuals that are so motivated about improving the community and I think that’s a good sign,” added Jamaly. “I think that we are a community that has a very high quality of life and we have a commitment as council to continue that high quality of life.”
Jamaly went on to further commend the society members on their understanding of the costs associated with the project, their strong commitment to the community and their attempt to make the project a regional endeavor between partner municipalities.
Leriger commented the town already spends about a quarter of its budget on recreation.
“Adding additional costs to that is something that would have to be discussed during budget deliberations. It’s difficult to commit to those dollars now,” he said.
“There is nobody here on council that is against things like the spray park. We are faced with many financial challenges as a municipality and governing is choosing. With the building of our Spirit Centre, our community depleted its reserves to next to nothing and it’s been a few years trying to rebuild those and there are many competing interests and we certainly do our best to manage those.”
