By Thia James

POLL: Decades later, Kinsmen Water Park ‘still a draw’

Jul 22, 2014 | 6:49 AM

Voting for the Kinsmen Water Park in the TSN/Kraft Celebration Tour  contest stretches into a second day as supporters rally online to garner enough ballots to secure the $100,000 top prize.

By Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for Edelman, the firm representing Kraft Canada, said hundreds of thousands of votes had been cast. Voting in the opening hour of the contest had been delayed by a glitch that prevented ballots from being cast.

A win would take the City above the halfway point in raising the funds it needs to repair the structural issues with the 28-year-old water slides. The park’s water slides will remain closed until they are repaired – and $260,000 is needed to do so.

The water park opened in 1986 and was greatly popular, according to members of council of the day.

Iris Borrowman Clark was a city counsellor in 1986. She described the water park’s opening as a big boost to the people of Prince Albert. “And especially to the children – those that aren’t able to get out to camps or to get away on holidays – it’s a tremendous part of their lives.”

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There was a lot of interest in the new water park, she noted, albeit at a time when the city’s population was smaller. She remembers it being busy with visitors.

She said that she was “quite in favour” of the park. “It brought a new dimension to a lot of the lives that, you know, weren’t able to … get out to other facilities out of the city during the summer months.”

The park is important in her eyes – not just to the people of Prince Albert, but for those coming from the North as well.

Borrowman Clark explained the mindset of the council of the day where the future planning, or lack thereof, for the facility is considered.

“When we were on council, we never thought of the need to plan ahead for anything of that magnitude. And of course, unless we were informed by the people in charge, we had no idea that, you know, that it was deteriorating in any way or that it would need further care in the future. [It] just wasn’t something that was looked at.”

It’s something that she’d advise the council of today to do differently. Borrowman Clark said we have to be aware of our city facilities.

“Along with all the other responsibilities, they do have to be looked after.”

Admission to the park should also be kept affordable, she said.

“As long as it’s kept affordable and it’s kept well-maintained, I think that’s one of the highlights.”

She has heard about the vote but is concerned that the vote is online only.

Lee Gisi was also member of city council in the lead up to and during the water park’s opening. He said he raised the question of who would be responsible for maintaining the park.

He agreed with the Kinsmen Club’s assertion that the park’s maintenance should be in the hands of the City. But he questioned why the water slides are now in “such a rundown condition.”

“Somebody is not doing their job,” he said. There was no discussion about creating a fund to maintain the park at the time, he acknowledged.

“All we’d have to do is re-budget for it because there would be somebody … who was left in charge of the maintenance of the place, they would have to do a study and find out what are the things that normally go wrong, what they have to replace each year, and we should never have got into this kind of a condition,” he said. Gisi was clear: ultimately administration answers to council.

The project to build the Kinsmen Water Park cost about $1 million and was funded by the Kinsmen Club, Gisi said. “That’s 28 years ago. It’d cost $5 million to build it now,” added.

And when the park did open, there was enthusiasm from the public for it.

“Was there ever,” Gisi said. “Absolutely… People just loved [those] water slides. They thought that was one of the best things anybody ever thought of.”

The Kinsmen Club was looking to develop a significant park area for young people in Prince Albert and area, the chair of Kinsmen Park in 1986, Lawrence Zatlyn said. 

They spent a lot of time speaking to people at the University of Saskatchewan about what constitutes a “good park.”

Out of these meetings came the concept for the current park. Zatlyn said the Kinsmen Club’s contribution was two-fold.

“At that time, the Kinsmen contribution to the water park was astronomical relative to what money was being earned,” he said.

The Kinsmen Club had just become involved in the bingo concept, and the park required more money than the fundraising that was existing at the time. They ramped up their use of bingos to generate cash for their contribution. The City also contributed to the park’s development.

Zatlyn said that the Kinsmen and Kinettes felt that, at the time, Prince Albert was lagging or slightly behind where they wanted to be when it came to facilities for youth. They looked at other concepts but the existing concept was what resonated.

“I think we all look back and we’re really excited that we did something that years and years later, decades later, actually, is still a draw.”

Former mayor Richard E. Spencer, who was in office at the time of the water park’s opening, could not be reached.

The City has set up voting stations at City Hall, the Alfred Jenkins Field House and at the Kinsmen Water Park. The water park stands among a field of 10 other facilities across Canada.

The online polls will close at 9:59 p.m. local time.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames