Fort Lauderdale must fix its water park screw-up

We have four professional sports teams and a skyline in Miami that rivals any in the world. We even have Trader Joe’s and Wawa now.

But Miami-Dade and Broward Counties don’t have a legitimate water park. An entire generation of children have grown up in tropical South Florida without experiencing the thrill of an 80-foot drop into a plunge pool. What sort of a childhood is that?

It’s true that you can head up I-95 to Riviera Beach where Rapids — once a rinkydink water park — has transformed into an impressive attraction. Yet ask anyone who lives in Broward — or especially Dade — how often they make the trek to West Palm Beach? It might as well be another planet. It’s not far from Jupiter.

Dade and Broward, which have a combined 4.4 million residents, haven’t had a water park since Six Flags Atlantis closed 25 years ago. The city of Fort Lauderdale has spent the last

seven years working with Texas-based Schlitterbahn to build a 64-acre water park next to the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport — partially on the site of the decaying Fort Lauderdale Stadium that once hosted Yankees and Orioles spring training games.

Schlitterbahn, which owns four water parks in Texas and one in Kansas City, promised Fort Lauderdale will be the biggest and baddest yet.

Just don’t get too excited, because a federal judge last week crushed a lot of dreams. Premier Parks LLC, which owns Rapids, successfully sued Fort Lauderdale for not opening the project to competitive bidding.

Now embarrassed city officials are pointing their fingers at Rapids, blaming them for delaying the project for their own selfish needs. The city, not Rapids, deserves the blame. Fort Lauderdale’s charter requires the city to seek bids when it leases land. The land was initially owned by the federal government but deeded to the city years ago to be used for “public airport purposes.” The Federal Aviation Administration in 2015 allowed the city to purchase the land from the airport, but the city argued in court that the deal wasn’t official yet because of a technicality — so it didn’t require bidding. The judge didn’t buy it.

This is the same city that was chastised in 2013 by the Broward Inspector General for awarding a $32 million project to Recreation Design and Construction to build a new aquatic complex without seeking other bids. You’d think the city would learn.

Recreation Design is also working with Schlitterbahn on the Fort Lauderdale project.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler says commissioners “had a legal opinion” that they didn’t need to seek bids for the water park. He says “it’s better for me if it’s bid competitively” because it could lower costs. But he insists no other company ever showed any interest in building a park there. Schlitterbahn also agreed to spruce up the property by building four athletic fields and renovating Lockhart Stadium.

You can also bet that the city wants a water park in place before someone else builds one in Dade or Broward.

“It’s sad and it’s frustrating,” Seiler said. “A lot of families are waiting on this water park. A lot of families are waiting on Lockhart to be renovated. A lot of families are desperately waiting for these four fields.”

Gary Rosen, an attorney for Premier, insists his company wants to bid on a park and is also willing improve the property. He acknowledges that Premier is trying to protect Rapids, but said better to build a second park themselves than invite Schlitterbahn to the market.

Winter Prosapio, a spokeswoman for Schlitterbahn, said Friday that Schlitterbahn hasn’t made a final decision on whether it will continue pursing the project.

Fort Lauderdale now has two choices — appeal the decision, which could delay it for months or longer. Or put it out for bid.

They should absolutely put it out for bid. Let Schlitterbahn and Premier — or any other company that wants to bid — duke it out. This is city land, which means the taxpayers own it. Competition is a good thing.

Maybe we won’t end up with the biggest and baddest water park in the country. But something is better than nothing.