Young children will get to enjoy a 2018 model of the Splash Pad this summer. Construction on the new amusement is expected to begin in early April and be open to the community on Memorial Day weekend.
Young children will get to enjoy a 2018 model of the Splash Pad this summer.
Construction on the new amusement is expected to begin in early April and be open to the community on Memorial Day weekend.
pad during the summer of
2017. In 2018, they will
have a new version to try.
(Chronicle file photo)
The Homewood-Flossmoor Park District approved the final step — purchase of a fence around the Splash Pad — at its meeting Tuesday, March 20.
The Splash Pad, a fountain designed like a rainbow that gives off sprays of water and bubbles up from the pad itself, sits at Millennium Park, 18600 Harwood, on the border of Homewood and Flossmoor.
The fountain has served the community well, but it is now past its useful life of 15 years and needs to be replaced. The board allocated $198,425 for construction.
Doug Boehm, superintendent of parks and planning, said the current rubberized style pad is being removed. The old pad was disintegrating and bits of the finish were peeling away and clogging the inner workings of the fountain.
A new grooved surface concrete pad will be installed, and most of the work will be done in the Splash Pad pump room, Boehm said. The fountain’s distinctive rainbow will be gone, but new sprays from posts and arches will delight children and the familiar bubblers from the pad will be there.
The park district is working with Innovation Aquatics as the project’s architects. George’s Landscaping of Joliet will demolish the current pad and install the new pad.
The Splash Pad is fenced for safety and monitored by a park district staff member. The Illinois Department of Public Health now requires a chain link fence around the Splash Pad. That was a disappointment to commissioners who said a chain link fence doesn’t give the same appearance as the current split rail fence.
To follow the state’s rules, commissioners agreed to an $8,900 contract with K-Brothers Fence, Inc. for the Splash Pad fence.
Boehm tried to reassure commissioners by telling them landscaping will help the overall appearance.