In today’s Seattle Council budget committee meeting, during which reduced hours for the Wallingford wading pool were announced, budget director Beth Goldberg made numerous mentions of converting wading pools to spray parks. She talked about the cost savings associated with spray parks — they don’t require lifeguards, for example — and their appeal to a wider age range of kids.
Three Seattle wading pools — Georgetown, Northacres, and Highland Park — are currently in the process of conversion. The funds are from the Parks and Green Space levy that was passed in 2008.
We talked with Parks and Rec Replacement Programs Project Manager Kelly Goold about construction costs for converting wading pools to spray parks. They vary depending on site conditions, but are typically start at $250,000 and average $400,000.
Goold said there are many benefits of a spray park versus a wading pool. Spray parks can expand the range of ages who’ll be interested in using it, and both the operation hours and the operation calendar can be extended. User-activated spray parks don’t have the level of regulation required of standing water pools, and the Parks Dept. doesn’t have to hire a lifeguard.
Tacoma has converted four wading pools to spray parks (which they call “spraygrounds”; photo above), and the parks are open from late May to late September, double the time that Seattle’s wading pools are available.
If this is an option the community wanted to pursue, Goold said, the 2008 levy’s $15 million Opportunity Fund might be a good place to start. The application process is done for this year, but $8 million will be available again in 2012, the Parks Dept.’s Kellee Jones told us.
I have a nearly three year old son and would love to see a spray park (called splash pads in Portland, where we fell in love with them) instead of a wading pool. They are more fun, less cramped, and feel much safer and cleaner.
From the chats I’ve had with Parks Dept. folks, this would need to be a community-driven conversion. No more big levies coming any time soon. The most likely source of money would be the Opportunity Fund from the last levy, but someone creative and persistent might be able to find another way to finance it. Perhaps a reader or two will be game to take on this task? I’m always happy to get the word out.
I LOVE the idea of spray parks! Yes yes yes
This is SO wonderful. I hope that it becomes a combined use plunge for dogs and toddlers. I just hope that the dogs are safe and don’t have to fear contracting diseases from human spawn.
Unfortunately, summer is on us, making spray parks unlikely for this summer, even if the money could be found.
Just for this summer why not make one family style with garden hose, sprinkler hose, and some standard garden sprinklers? It’d be just as much fun and wouldn’t cost much.
What exactly is so wrong with wading pools, they require a life guard? Another word for that is “job creator.” I can squirt my kid with a hose or sprinkler in the backyard, the wading pool has been around for nearly 40 years and now we want to get rid of it because the “far wealthier than before” citizens in the neighborhood are too cheap to pay for a lifeguard.