COLD SPRING (WJON News) -- Some concerns arose during discussions about a change in operations to the splash pad in Cold Spring.

During Tuesday night's meeting, Public Works Director Jon Stueve says they were looking into some water conservation efforts heading into the summer.

He says with the splash pad open for a few years now, they've learned some aspects in operating the water feature, they didn't know at the start.

There is a lot of expense with the splash pad that residents may not realize. The expense of water, that feature uses 120,000 to 160,000 gallons of water per day. With that there is the cost to the city with electrical expense, chemical expenses and other things like that.

Stueve says he's not sure what the best solution would be, but suggested to either close the splash pad a few days a week or at minimum limit the hours of operation.

In doing that, the city could save roughly 3.4 million gallons of water for the entire summer.

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Several residents spoke up about the success of the splash pad and suggested the city look at alternatives other than closing or limiting hours.

Are there ways we can conserve water by keeping the same hours should be a priority for the city. Maybe there are things we can do or features that we could replace to help with these water conservation efforts.

Currently the water used by the splash pad flows into the Sauk River. Residents suggested finding a way to recycle the water, however the city says when the amenity was built that option was pulled due to the added expense and the site didn't allow for them to install a recollection tank.

Following a lengthy discussion, the council opted to keep the normal hours of operation for the splash pad.

Council member Doug Schmitz suggested the public works department to look into making some modifications to the system throughout the summer to help with their water conservation efforts.

Let's leave the hours the way we have it, and let's look if we can adjust the timer settings and even throttle back the values so not as much water is being pushed out.

The Cold Spring Splash Pad at Alexander Park is open seven days away throughout the summer months from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.

 


 

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