The Cost to Switch Wading Pools in St. Cloud Over to Splash Pads

The City of St. Cloud,  as previously reported on WJON, will not open the 7 wading pools due to a lack of qualified lifeguards.  St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis joined me on WJON today.  He says this is unfortunate but not unexpected.  This is the 3rd straight summer the wading pools will remain closed.  (2020 and 2021 was due to COVID) Kleis says it is possible to change the wading pools over to splash pads.  He says the cost to do this would be approximately $250,000 for each.

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Kleis says to pay for this transition from wading pools to splash pads the money could come from a bonding referendum question that would be placed on the November ballot intended for park improvements.  He says this would be a $20 Million bond paid over 20-some years.  Kleis says the work would be done within the next 4 to 5 years.  He says an advantage with splash pads is they don't need the type of maintenance that wading pools do which greatly reduces the yearly expenses.

Kleis says they cannot open the pools without qualified lifeguards on site due to liability to the city.  He says to get some of these wading pools back to operational it would cost approximately $60-80 thousand dollars.

If you want to cool off you can go to one of the three city splash pads at Lake George/Eastman Park, Riverside Park, or Westwood Park.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Mayor Dave Kleis it is available below.