By Thia James

Kinsmen Water Park’s slides closed for 2014

May 20, 2014 | 5:09 PM

When the Kinsmen Water Park opens to the public for the 2014 season, the four large slides at its north end will remain fenced off. Only the tot slide will be open to the public.

Prince Albert city officials announced on Tuesday that the slides would be closed for the season due to safety concerns stemming from the deteriorating structure. The decision was made after the city received the results of an inspection report it commissioned from Prakash Consulting Ltd.

Community services director Jody Boulet said the issues are with the fibreglass of the two 300-foot slides, river slide and the junior slide. He said the fibreglass portion of the slides needs to be stripped and re-done, and the steel structure that supports the slides are “compromised,” and are not safe for public use. They would need to be rebuilt in order to keep the slides operating in the future.

“Really, this is the first year where we’ve had to make a major decision with the slide structure. Certainly, we only open public facilities when they’re safe to do so, and it has been, certainly, up until this year.”

When officials looked at the inspection report from Prakash, and then had an on-site meeting, Boulet said the question became: “Would you send your own children down it?”

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He said the answer was “no.”

They then had to present the total for fully restoring the slides — $260,000 – which was included in the budget process. However, the budget committee didn’t approve the restoration cost. The reconstruction would potentially extend the useful life of the slides.

To fund the reconstruction of the slides, the city is looking for a “community partner,” which would put $200,000 towards the project. This could include local businesses or organizations. The remaining $60,000 would come from the City of Prince Albert, Mayor Greg Dionne said.

Even if the City were to find a community partner, the slides still won’t open this season, he said.

“It will take probably a year to take the whole structure down and then rebuild it,” Dionne said. “So it’s a large project. Hopefully we find that community partner. If we don’t, it will be going to council and then council will have to make a decision on what they’re going to do with the park.”

When the water park itself was built in 1986, the Kinsmen Club came forward to help the city fund the project, Dionne noted. 

The remainder of the park will open for the season on June 6.

Construction crews are also working on the roof of the adjacent Kinsmen Arena.

The condition of the aging slides has been on the radar of city officials for years. Dionne noted that the slides have undergone “major” work in the past, both to the steel and fibreglass portions. 

Despite the budget proposal, funding hadn’t been set aside for the repair of the water slides in the budget this year.

“It’s similar to other buildings – we sort of do it as the need comes along, where [it has] always been an argument that we should have had a reserve, we should have been maybe charging an extra dollar per person and putting it in a reserve, so when this day came along, that we had the money. But to date, we don’t have the funding,” Dionne said.

The City is also looking at alternative funding possibilities, including at applicable provincial or federal grants, Boulet noted.

The admission will remain unchanged this year for park goers even with Tuesday’s announcement. But Dionne anticipates that the closure of the slides will affect the attendance at the park.

“The park is now 28 years old. What’s sad for me is there’s 35,000 visitors a year that come to this park. And for lots of young children in our community, this is where they go instead of, they can’t afford to go to the lake or other places like that, so this park means quite a bit to them.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames