By Alex Soloducha

Kinsmen Water Park opens with slides out of commission

Jun 9, 2014 | 6:24 AM

The Kinsmen Water Park is up and running, but it just isn’t the same as it once was.

The waterslides have been deemed unsafe and will not be opening without needed repairs—repairs that would come at a cost of more than $200,000.

For now, it’s not looking like something the City will be restoring, especially anytime soon.

The Water Park started up on June 6 and Ryan Galbraith was there with his kids on opening day. He said they’re disappointed, but he understands why the slides needed to be shut down.

“I think it’s a safety concern. I’m all about safety. If there is a safety concern there, I could see that there would be a problem. Safety costs money and this is probably just a by-product of that,” he said.

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Galbraith said, in his point of view, the Water Park probably isn’t a priority, and if they do decide to fix it, it won’t be right away.

“Things like that take time. Maybe that could’ve been done in the wintertime, but [there are] budget constraints for the City … everyone has to make tough decisions, so I think this is one of the decisions they had to make, no waterslides for this summer. It may affect business this summer, but it’s just one of the things cities have to make decisions on,” he said.

Still, Galbraith said it’s something his family is going to have to deal with.

“It’s just one more thing we can’t do I guess,” he said.

Galbraith’s daughter Phoenix said the waterslides closing has already put a damper on the summer.

“At Holy Cross [for] my end field trip, we were supposed to go here, but the waterslides are closed so they cancelled it,” she said. She was looking forward to it because this year she’d be old enough to go alone. “The waterslides are pretty fun for me, and I like going on the tube one.”

While the future of the Water Park remains somewhat unknown for now, the waterslides not opening are already affecting the community.

-with files from Bryn Hadubiak

asoloducha@rawlco.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha