We’ve received several concerned emails from residents about a mass email that went around recently purporting that “they want to shut down the waterpark”. While we absolutely love community involvement, there are a few facts we’d like to make clear:

1. We do not want to shut down the waterpark. There is a possibility that fixing the waterpark is beyond our ability, which is a very important difference.
2. There have been complaints that the poll on the home page isn’t clear enough with the “replace water park” option. It is not stated specifically that the replacement would be another waterpark, which is an error I have corrected. Several people wrote that option in when they answered “other”, and I will be combining them with the “replace waterpark with another waterpark” option when the time comes to tally the results.
3. The poll is merely a gauge on public opinion. We won’t necessarily take the action that is most popular, as the poll itself is very unscientific. What it does give us is a basic idea of how important the spray park is to people.
4. Pricing for spray parks is all over the map because no two spray parks are alike. The figure of $2,000,000 came from a meeting we had with a city employee, and that was based off other parks purchased around the city. It’s important to note that the sizes are all different and ours very well could be cheaper. We are in communications with a spray park vendor and will be getting a more accurate estimate.
5. The absence of a “just fix the park we have” option in the poll is due to the fact that too much of it is broken. Literally every bit of it is in a state of rapid decay and it’s even getting to the point that fixing it is becoming dangerous to the contractors we need to bring in.
6. There is an agreement in place that all Somerset residents sign when they purchase their home that we must follow. One stipulation is that what we can charge you in yearly fees is capped (and we’re nearly there). This limits our ability to generate revenue. That is just one hurdle, and we’ll do a better job of explaining the rest of them at a later date.

Further reading on the problem with the park can be found here.

The poll in question will be coming down on Monday morning (August 24). Please make sure you encourage anybody who hasn’t voted yet to do so. Please don’t vote multiple times. It’s very easy to detect, so in the end we don’t want you to waste your time! We’ll post again once the numbers are in and break everything down.

It’s clear that many of you are passionate about the park, and we love that. What we’re going to be needing moving forward is a gauge on how many of you will be able to help us. If getting a new park is a priority, then it’s going to take a lot of help. Once we have an accurate idea of what it would cost, then we can approach the question of how to do it.