Future of Splash Station stays on hold

The summer swimming pool season, such as it is during the COVID-19 pandemic, comes to a close this weekend with the Splash Station Waterpark having been shuttered for a third straight summer.

When and whether Splash Station opens again is uncertain.

But Joliet Park District board President Sue Gulas said even if Splash Station does open again it’s not likely to be the same.

“Last year we were going to try and just open the zero-depth pool,” Gulas said. “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that next year. Will it reopen the way it was? Probably not because it loses money.”

Park officials emphasized no decision has been made about the future of Splash Station.

But Gulas said she considered a limited reopening more likely than putting the full water park back to use.

That would mean no slides and no Lazy River. The zero-depth pool enjoyed by small children and the lap pool next to it could be reopened at a fraction of the cost of a full reopening, Gulas said.

The number of lifeguards needed for the Lazy River and water slides make them expensive to staff, she said. And, the Lazy River needs repairs.

“There are some pumps that have to do with the Lazy River that are super-expensive to fix,” Gulas said.

Splash Station lost $130,000 in 2018, the last summer it was open.

When the park district faced budget problems the next year, the decision was made to close Splash Station.

The limited reopening planned for 2020 was foiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, which provided reasons to keep it closed again in 2021. The pandemic also put a damper on the interest in public pools, leading to few complaints anymore about Splash Station being closed.

“It’s been closed for three summers now, and we haven’t had many calls,” said park district Executive Director Brad Staab.

The pandemic also created new financial problems for the park district, which lost more than $3 million in 2020 when shut-down mandates forced golf courses to close and park programs to be canceled. Staab said the park district is still trying to recover financially from the pandemic.

Unlike for other public bodies, there has been no COVID-19 financial relief program for park districts.

Ironically, now that Splash Station is closed, it’s actually making money for the park district. The large parking lot outside the water park is rented out to a truck company that pays $7,000 a month to park trucks there.

Keeping the water park closed could be a problem, however.

The construction costs of Splash Station, which opened in 2002, were partially funded with a state grant that required it be open for 20 years. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which provided the grant, gave its OK for the closure in 2019 with the expectation that the grant obligations would be fulfilled.

That would mean an eventual reopening of the water park. As to when and if that may happen, Staab said, “We’re taking it year by year at this point.”