Central Iowa Times

The Webster City Council received a presentation on a possible splash pad in the community at a recent meeting.

Clay Schneckloth, a landscape architect of Snyder Associates, presented options for a splash pad project to the council. Splash pads are one of the most popular developments in the area right now. 

In other communities, splash pads are popular because they can be accessed quickly with no admission fee and without standing in lines, Schneckloth told the council.

"A lot of times it's more like a daycare type group that comes in because they're in the summer months. They're taking daycare and they don't have to pay a fee. It's nice for them to come in for a couple of hours and get the kids to play in the water and go to the shelter and have a little snack and then go back to the daycare facility," he said.

The two main options for a splash pad are a recirculating or non-recirculating system. The recirculating system would fall under the same regulations and water treatment plans as a swimming pool, cleaning with chemicals and UV light. These systems add a significant cost to the project because the parts are more elaborate. These also require showers on site as well, just like a pool. A non-recirculating system just has the water come out and then flow into the sewer system.

Some of the other aspects that the council needs to consider is how elaborate the splash pad will be, what kind of spray features, how many, how big and where in the community the splash pad will be. The council discussed a couple options for locations and will submit a final decision to Snyder. The estimate for a simple and smaller size splash pad would be between $200,000-$300,000.