A few dozen youngsters were joined by a host of dignitaries for the official opening of the park, which was built at an overall cost of $240,000 split between the Moose Jaw Co-Op and City of Moose Jaw.
“I’m very, very happy with how it turned out. It feels great to be able to give back to the community,” said Co-Op general manager Geoff Anderson. “If we didn’t have the community, we wouldn’t have a Co-Op and we feel the same way about the community. So we want to give back and make sure that we’re doing our part to beautify and elevate it so that it continues to be a great place to live.”
The facility replaced an old paddling pool in the same park, creating a brand new and welcome updated space that will be used for years to come.
“It’s super satisfying,” said Jenny Gadd with the East Side Community Association. “It’s wonderful to hear, I don’t live very far from here so I can hear the kids splashing and hooting and hollering and it’s awesome.
“It’s great to see the park so well used right off the bat and it’s great to have a nearby venue for the kids in the neighbourhood to come and enjoy. And it takes some of the pressure off of the other spray parks in the area, disperses the crowd around the city.”
Since the park is user operated – the water is turned on by pressing a mounted button next to the pad, which gives a few minutes of spray time each press – there’s no need for city supervision, unlike the previous pool.
Those are sort of an outdated model,” explained Gadd. “They’re filled and emptied every day whether a single person uses it or not. They have to be staffed because it’s basically a pool. It’s just not an efficient way to entertain children or people in the neighbourhood. It was end of life-cycle, time to do something fresh and the spray park was a natural progression from a paddling pool.”
The investment especially positive in that it gives back to the children of Moose Jaw, something Anderson was proud to be a part of.
“Any way to elevate our children’s lives is a good thing and really, we look at all of our kids here as future leaders of Moose Jaw and Saskatchewan and this is a way to give back to them.”
