Greenwood secures nearly $240,000 matching grant for splash pad

GREENWOOD — The city is trying to figure out how to move forward with a splash pad project after receiving a state grant to bring it to fruition.

Casey Craig, city parks director, told the city Parks and Water/Wastewater commissions at a joint study session Monday the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism selected the city to receive a 50-50 matching grant for the project totaling $239,278. He added this came with the condition the project be completed within two years from the date of the award notice.

“If we’re going to use this money, we got to get the ball rolling on this project,” Craig said.

The City Council approved applying for the grant to build the splash pad in April. Tammy Briley, the city’s parks director at the time, said she intended to apply for the maximum allowable amount, $250,000, with assistance from the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District.

Mayor Doug Kinslow expressed gratitude to both Briley and the district for the parts they played in securing the grant for Greenwood, along with excitement for the award itself. He estimated the city has been discussing how to develop a splash pad for at least 15 years.

Kinslow said a splash pad would give children a new, readily accessible water feature allowing them to have fun in the summer for free. He acknowledged while some of the children can get to the nearby Fort Smith and Parrot Island, a water park the city jointly owns with Sebastian County, many others can’t.

“This is something that the kids, any kid, could go and enjoy, and we’re excited about giving the kids that opportunity,” he said.

Craig said the splash pad project will be built within about 19 acres adjacent to Bell Park. The project, which is in the design phase without a time to start construction, is set to include a splash pad, two restrooms and a parking lot with 20 spaces.

The council approved buying the land to expand Bell Park in November 2019. The land came with a purchase price not to exceed $10,000 per acre for a total of $194,700.

Kinslow said the splash pad will be the first amenity to be built on the property.

A budget dated Aug. 22 puts the splash pad project’s price at more than $1.01 million between construction costs and other expenses. MAHG Architecture in Fort Smith has been designing the project while the Van Buren-based Hawkins-Weir Engineers is handling “most of the utility side of the engineering” for it, according to Craig.

Craig said Monday’s joint commission meeting was meant to get everybody involved in the splash pad project together to discuss work that’s been done so far, as well as how to best proceed. One discussion topic was the type of system the city will use to get water to and from the splash pad, as well as what each option would require from the city.

Craig explained one possible system would send water to the splash pad and use drains in the ground to catch the water after the pad shoots it out. The water would then pass through the city’s sewer system to a wastewater treatment facility.

“The second type is a recirculation system, and it’s more or less the same process,” Craig said. “Water is sent to the splash pad, a drain catches it, but instead of going to our sewer system, this water is sent into a recirculation system contained inside the splash pad premises and reused for splash pad water.”

Craig said he’ll work to contact other municipalities in the area, such as Fort Smith, to learn details about how they facilitate their splash pads.

Another element discussed at the meeting was how the city will pay for the splash pad project between sales tax money available for parks projects and a possible loan in tandem with the state grant. Joel Goldstein, Parks Commission chairman, said the city Advertising & Promotion Commission may also contribute money for the project.

Tom Marsh, city finance director, said the council would need to approve any loan in connection with the project. A loan would free up city sales tax money to be used for park projects outside the splash pad going forward.

Craig asked the Parks Commission members to go through the project budget and select which areas they believed could be pared down to reduce the overall cost before their next meeting Tuesday, when they will discuss the budget again in greater detail.

“We need to get construction plans from MAHG so that our water guys know where they can start running water,” Craig said.