Big splash

The city’s water parks have made a making a big splash with residents.

Hundreds of families have taken advantage of the city’s water parks to cool off in the summer’s heat. The temperature reached 31-degrees Celsius on Thursday without the humidity.

Shirley Fournier took her 10-year-old son Keelan for the first time at the Marina Park splash pad. She had heard about it and wasn’t sure if it would be worth her while but she said having seen it in person she’s a changed person.

“It’s really nice,” Fournier said. “We came down because it was something different to do. There’s not a lot of activities in Thunder Bay. I Google searched it and I thought we should come down and try it.”

Bob Sweeney and his wife Stacey also decided to give the splash pad a try.

Their two daughters, five-year-old Caitlin and seven-year-old Briana splashed and chased each other in the pond.

Sweeney said he’s glad the city invested into the splash pad but added they could always do more to attract tourists to the waterfront. He suggested the city look at the waterfronts in Duluth and Grand Maria as an example.

“It was a debate to come here or to the splash pad on Miles Street,” Sweeney said. “We’ve come here in the winter to skate so we wanted to see the difference. This adds a whole lot to the marina.”

Donna Sippala, supervisor for aquatics and wellness for the city, said they have had 700 to 900 people at the splash park every day. The warm weather played a big part in the park’s popularity, she said.

“It’s a beautiful environment there,” Sippala said. “You got the fountain, the water and it’s shallow enough that families with young children can come in. We got a wonderful filtration system and the water is chlorinated.”

Since the park has been so popular, the city made decide to open the park earlier next year, she said.

The park will remain open until the weather cools down. She said once they have closed the splash pad it will be sometime before they turn it back into the rink.