THUNDER BAY -- North End Park will be home to the city's third neighbourhood splash pad.
The city has released designs for Diamond Head Sprinklers' $450,000 outdoor sprinkler park near the North End Community Centre. Construction will begin in May and staff expects it will open in July.
The splash pad will be similar to the one built in County Park, with recreational areas for toddlers, children and teens, all resting on a concrete base.
City parks and open space planning supervisor Werner Schwar said the pad is part of a broader plan for North End Park that has seen a beach volleyball court and a half basketball court built to complement the community centre and outdoor ice surfaces.
"When you have activity, it helps generate other activity. It feels vibrant and alive," Schwar said.
"When you have eyes and people in the park, a lot less vandalism happens. People have pride in the place and it becomes a place people feel good about being."
Beyond the splash pad at Marina Park, the city has constructed on Franklin and County parks and is continuing to build new structures a two or three-year cycle. The next pad after North End will be constructed at James Street Park. The goal is to have a splash pad for every 5,000 local children under the age of nine.
Schwar added the city's approach to aquatic development has been to veer away from the construction of outdoor swimming pools for a number of reasons.
"Pools have maintenance requirements to them in terms of chlorination, water quality, plus supervision. splash pads aren't regulated by those same regulations. they don't need to be supervised the same way," he said.
"They have activators which, once the water gets turned on by the user, it turns off on its own and use far less water than a pool."
(With files from TBT News)
