Progress being made on Shelburne Splash Pad initiative

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Shelburne Town Council received an updated report from the Shelburne Splash Pad committee on the progress of the initiative during their meeting on Monday (July 12). 

Splash Pad committee members Sandra Gallaugher and Shaila (Bella) Carter presented councillors with a report detailing their fundraising efforts thus far, noting that they have almost raised $200,000. 

The committee has a fundraising goal of $300,000, which was originally scheduled to be raised by this year but Gallaugher told councillors that timeline had been pushed to 2022, due to COVID-19. 

Throughout the year the Splash Pad committee has done various events to raise donations including a car wash, pizza giveaway, and bottle drive. A number of local organizations have donated funds including Caravaggio I.D.A, Sunrise Diner, Flato, Trillium Ford, KTH, and the Shelburne Rotary. There have also been a number of private donations. 

“We're getting very close to our final $300,000 project and I am sure we'll have that raised by summer of 2022 without too much problems,” said Gallaugher. “We still need work to be done on raising funds, but we're getting there and we're doing well on it.” 

In early 2020, the committee met with Shelburne council regarding the location for the splash pad and Greenwood Park was decided. The Shelburne Rotary has entered a contract with Park N Play Design who will provide the splash pad equipment. 

“When we originally started, we had some quote already in and Park and Play Design, their price came in very similar,” said Gallaugher. “We took the quotes from the last splash pad committee that there was, they had passed everything over to us. They've been very supportive of the whole project, and we felt that was the company to go with.” 

Denyse Morrissey, chief administrative officer for the Town, advised council that they've already worked out how the project will be tendered and quoted for their side with Park N Play Design. 

The Town's portion of the splash pad is being vetted through their purchasing process. Shelburne Rotary is donating the splash pad equipment that they purchase from Park N Play, which will be assigned to Shelburne. 

 Coun. Lindsay Wegener questioned if the committee is anticipating an increase in fees, with COVID-19 and the year delay. 

“We went back to Park N Play a few months ago and got it quoted again because we anticipated that might happen,” said Gallaugher. “They've re-quoted it, we've had to adjust some equipment to make it still fall into our budget, but I'm confident that we're OK with that. We're probably gonna have to start putting money down and purchasing the equipment so it doesn't go up anymore.” 

The splash pad was budgeted at $700,000 with the committee raising $300,000 of it. The Town will be contributing $400,000 and will cover the annual operating costs which will be around $25,000. 

The goal is to have to Shelburne Splash Pad completed by summer of fall 2022.