Major progress has been made at the Soo Splash Pad over the past few days to include running water and city approval to construct restrooms nearby.
The Sault Ste. Marie Rotary Club did all the fundraising necessary to purchase materials and start building two uni-sex bathrooms, equipped with baby changing stations. The total cost is estimated at approximately $85,000.
“We have been working on Project Playground Bathroom for about six or seven years,” said Craig Flickinger, rotary club president. “We have a game show every year in January. The past two years, we’ve put money from the game show towards this. Our club put a portion into it. Then we had a benefactor pass away, who put a lion’s share into this for Project Playground.”
The city determined restrooms near Project Playground to be a needed asset. Families currently lack quick, easy access to bathrooms when visiting the park area.
City Manager Brian Chapman said the Project Playground Bathroom was outlined in a previous Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), but never officially approved. During Monday’s regular city commission meeting, commissioners voted in favor of accepting the rotary club’s restroom donation.
Upon project completion, any ongoing restroom maintenance will be conducted by city parks and recreation staff.
Fairview Construction is building the bathrooms, Plumbers Plumbing will install plumbing and Roy Electric Company will get some lights turned on.
“We are working in conjunction with the splash pad,” said Flickinger. “The goal is to be done in six weeks.”
Three years after mothers Amanda TenEyck and Lisa Young launched the Soo Splash Pad Committee, shovels have finally dug into city ground to sprout water.
Bonacci Contracting Inc. ran water lines through the freshly excavated site last week. However, splash pad parts are still arriving.
The Soo Splash Pad is expected to be completed sometime after the bathrooms, toward the end of summer into early autumn.
Once the pad is built, it will become a city asset. Like the restrooms, it will be up to the city to provide future maintenance. Ongoing costs were among common concerns during splash pad discussions.
“Everyone wanted to know who was going to pay for it,” said TenEyck. “We will give a total of $57,500 in the first five years.”
The Soo Splash Pad Committee and Chippewa County Community Foundation (CCCF) successfully secured five-year pledges to help pay for five years of water.
“At the end of five years, we do expect the city to take on that expense,” CCCF Director Debbie Jones said in January.
Overall, Soo Splash Pad fundraising efforts have reached around $170,000, plus hundreds of thousands more in donated materials and labor.
“We have pledges raised for the Water Legacy Fund through the community foundation,” said TenEyck. “We could not have gotten this far without incredible donations from the community. A lot of people came forward generously. That part of the experience has been exciting.”
Assistance was also given by the Public Spaces Community Places grant offered through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Michigan Municipal League, and Patronicity.
MEDC matched $50,000 in donations, following the $107,185 raised by the Chippewa County Community Foundation and Soo Splash Pad Committee by the turn of 2022.
The splash pads initial proposal was presented to city commissioners in June of 2019, where it gained instant approval.
“Between June of 2019 to March of 2020, we raised $45,000,” said Jones.
By mid-March of that year, the pandemic dwindled fundraising efforts. The project resurrected in June of 2021 and all prior conversations resumed.
Who would pay for the water?
To answer that question, Jones recruited Justin Knepper of Knepper Development Strategies to help draw up a fundraising plan. The plan made CCCF financially responsible for up to five years of water costs, estimating anywhere between $7,500 and $11,000 annually. The city agreed to the plan.
The entire project is estimated to cost $210,000 to $240,000 from start to finish.
That is when Knepper applied for the MEDC Public Spaces Community Places grant.
In July 2021, CCCF and the Soo Splash Pad Committee jumpstarted a new crowdfunding campaign.
“We started planning for the Patronicity grant, providing a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $50,000,” Jones said.
The silent campaign targeted several area businesses and organizations, securing approximately $40,000 in monetary pledges.
Knepper’s application was approved to officially launch the splash pad’s Patronicity campaign on Dec. 8.
“In the meantime, we received a notice from Vortex who makes the splash pad equipment, that prices would go up 25 percent on Nov. 1st,” Jones said.
If the group wished to take advantage of lower prices, swift action was needed. They went ahead and purchased the needed splash pad equipment from Vortex Aquatic Structures Inc. Equipment costs were roughly $50,000.
“We wanted to get benches, bike racks, handwashing stations, and industrial strength picnic tables,” Jones said. “We wanted a barrier between the splash pad and parking lot for safety reasons.”
Seven months later, all the pieces are finally coming together to make splash pad vision a reality.
“Our goal from the beginning was to bring more fun and accessible youth activities to this area, and building the Soo Splash Pad accomplishes that goal,” said Young. “Many people and businesses have given generously of their time, talents, and finances to make this dream a reality for the Soo, and we are so grateful. We hope to see residents and tourists enjoying the Soo Splash Pad for years to come.”
