The first water drops from the big bucket after the grand opening of the new spray park in McDonald Park in Kamloops, Friday, July 8, 2016.
(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)
July 08, 2016 - 2:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - It’s been open for a week, but now it’s really open.
The McDonald Park spray area had its official ribbon cutting ceremony with local politicians, live music and snacks for attendees today, July 8, and a couple hundred people gathered for the event.
Before the ribbon cutting Mayor Peter Milobar told the crowd the new spray area has helped turn the North Shore park into a mini-Riverside Park. It already had a stage, pickleball courts, playground and community garden.
While the former pool at McDonald Park was well liked, Milobar says the spray area will see heavier usage, which could make the whole park safer.
“The more people you can have recreating in a park the safer it becomes,” he says. “That’s always a good thing.”
Council decided to close the pool after costs for repairs were deemed too high. Milobar says the spray park had been discussed with the community before, and with costs for a new spray park about the same as repairing and running the pool for a year, it made more sense to build the new park.
“That wasn’t the only factor in it,” he says. “It just seemed like the right timing with the major repairs to were going to be need on the pool to do it this year."
The park was open for use last week.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2016