City considers adding more splash pads, aquatics facilities

In an effort to improve quality of life and get a “bigger bank for it’s buck,” the city of El Paso is considering building splash pads and aquatic facilities around town.

“I believe it will speak to the core of what we call quality-of-life projects because it’ll be low cost entertainment and family entertainment,” City Manager Tommy Gonzalez told the City Council on Tuesday.

Splash pads and aquatic facilities are proving to be immensely popular in cities that have built them, said Fred Lopez, the assistant to the city’s chief financial officer.

The city currently has 17 recreation centers with pools, but the traditional rectangular design with the occasional slide are drawing fewer visitors and declining in popularity and use, Lopez said.

A splash pad can cost between half a million to a million dollars to build, but is cheap to maintain because it requires little to no staff, recycles water and can be turned off during non-operational hours, city officials said.

Aquatics facilities also differ from regular city pools because they have amenities like rock climbing, lazy rivers and bigger slides.

“These are going to be brand new to our communities. And the cities that utilize these — as soon as they open during the May season — they are packed,” Lopez said.

“Picture a mini Wet-N-Wild,” a city spokesman said.

The aquatics facilities could be more expensive to build, upwards of a million dollars, according to a city spokesman.

The City Council will hear recommendations from staff in the coming weeks and decide how many facilities to build and where. Lopez told the Council the City could utilize some Community Development Block Grant money to build the splash pads.