Shelburne council selects name for splash pad

June 29, 2023 · 0 Comments

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As construction on a local splash pad comes close to wrapping up, and the opening date is set for the near future, the Shelburne Splash Pad has officially been named.

During Shelburne Town Council’s meeting on Monday (June 26), councillors approved the splash pad to be named the “Rotary Splash Pad” at Greenwood Park.

“The recommendation is that we name the [splash pad] after the great and amazing fundraising campaign that the club has undertaken,” said Denyse Morrissey, chief administrative officer.

In October 2019, members of the Splash Pad Committee met with Shelburne Town Council to present the project idea. The presentation outlined a draft of the projected design, potential locations for the splash pad, cost for the project, and fundraising.

The committee met again with council in early 2020, where the location for the splash pad was decided to be Greenwood Park. The Shelburne Rotary Club later entered into a contract with Park N Play Design to provide the equipment for the splash pad.

The splash pad was budgeted at $700,000, with the committee raising $300,000 of it through donations and the Town of Shelburne contributing the remaining $400,000 and covering the annual operating costs.

In January, members of the Shelburne Splash Pad Committee and town councillors marked the first steps in the construction with a shovel-turning ceremony at Greenwood Park to celebrate the start of the breaking ground on construction.

“On behalf of council, the whole community within the Town of Shelburne and the larger community as well, thank you very much for leading the charge in this endeavor. It was a monumental task, but one you met,” said Mayor Wade Mills.

“What I found particularly neat about this was that it really was something the community latched onto through a few difficult years and it gave the community something to look forward to and pull together to work on,” continued Mills. “There were several events the community got behind and knew that what they were contributing to was going to result in something that would be here to stay in the community, to be used and enjoyed by residents. It’s not all that often that something like this really takes hold the way it did, so kudos to you and your team.”

The Rotary Splash Pad at Greenwood Park will be approximately 2,500 sq. ft., featuring several amenities, including an aqua cannon, five buckets, an aqua loop set, aqua bash, and spray n wash.

The naming process of the splash is consistent with formats used at Rotary Club splash pad projects and features in other communities.

“It’s not that we have another splash pad in our works right away, but we do recognize that potentially as a growing community there would potentially be a second splash pad at some point in our future,” explained Morrissey. “We didn’t want to create ambiguity and confusion where the Rotary splash pad is.”

A permanent plaque honouring the donors who helped fund the splash pad will also be placed at Greenwood Park.

At the time of print, no official date for the opening of the splash pad has been announced, but organizers said the goal is to have the structure up and running by early July.