Memorial day is just around the corner which means summer is almost here.
Wednesday morning the Carbondale Park District took a huge step towards opening their Super Splash Park..
With the help of the Fire Department.
It’s been over 10 years in the making.
And the finish line is near.
The super Splash Park in Carbondale is getting the finishing touches just in time for is Memorial Day weekend opening.
On Wednesday morning the Carbondale Fire Department lent a hand to the park district.
They brought out four fire hoses to help fill up the pools with over 300,000 gallons of water.
A task the crew didn’t mind doing today.
"It's a huge accomplishment for Southern Illinois"- Kathy Renfro, Carbondale Park District Director
”We would have been flushing hydrants otherwise.”
Fire Chief Ted Lomax says it would take the park district about 3 weeks to fill the pools themselves so his team was more than happy to help.
“We’re just assisting with a community project here helping fill the pool, speed up the process so they can start letting the water warm up, yeah it’ll take about 8 hours to fill up.”
After raising money, battling the state over the impasse and other obstacles, Director Kathy Renfro says it’s nice to see the water level rising.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for southern Illinois, everybody stuck together, literally thousands of people have joined together to bring this to us, so we can’t wait, opening day.”
Of coarse a new facility also brings new jobs.
“Looking forward to all our new employees. We have 75 new people coming to work for us this summer, high school kids, that’s exciting for us too.”
Once opened the Super Splash Park will be extremely busy for the next 115 days.
The park will be open to the public from 11am to 7pm everyday plus run programs in the morning as well.
“So we’ll open at 7am for fitness, swimming lessons and those kind of programs so 12 hours a day.”
The part that Renfro is looking forward to the most is the most rewarding of all.
“I’m anxious to hear the voices of the kids, you know that kind of elated squealing sound when you hear them playing and they’re just kind of beyond happiness.”
Hopefully giving a lot of people some great summer memories.
Information about the Super Splash Park can be found on the park district’s website.
