Setting Aquatics On Fire

By Mike McLaughlin

How do you top the excitement of a staff member climbing atop a pool tower, setting himself on fire, and then swan-diving into a pool? Well, since that happened in the 1950s and wouldn’t be allowed today, try cutting a ribbon as the first of 400 middle-school students and family members come screaming down five 35-foot-high water slides, across a zip line, up a climbing wall, and into a first-of-its-kind bow-tie wave pool.

Flaming divers aside, divergent experiences are a key part of Shawnee County Parks + Recreation’s (SCP+R) aquatic strategy in Topeka, Kan. Rather than build a single, large aquatic center to serve the entire community, the department has built three centers in three locations—each offering a different experience.

The Family Experience
The flaming diver was Mike Blaisdell, the son of R. Foster Blaisdell, Topeka’s first recreation director and the namesake of Shawnee County’s original “leisure-type” aquatic center. Dedicated in 2000, Blaisdell Family Aquatic Center is centrally located in Gage Park, which houses the Topeka Zoo and the Conservation Center, popular mini-train and carousel rides, and public gardens, among its many attractions. 

The park’s first “pool” was created when the late Gilbert Gage’s family donated his land to the city for a park. Gage Lake, as it was known, was cemented in, creating the “world’s largest concrete pool.” It held 1.8-million gallons of water. The pool was eventually replaced by a standard, competitive-size swimming pool into which Mike Blaisdell dove during an aquatic show. 

A $4.5-million renovation replaced the pool with a center featuring an L-shaped pool with two diving platforms, a spring board, and lap lanes that accommodate competitive swim meets. The center also features drop or plunge slides, a family slide, and a tornado slide, a zero-depth entry end with spray features, a kiddy pool, and a party room.

More than a decade later, with the paint on the water slides fading and two new aquatic centers built, SCP+R is studying options for updating Blaisdell, starting with replacing the original slides with exciting new models.

Surrounded By Nature
The Shawnee North Family Aquatic Center opened in 2006 in a popular, wooded park in the northern reaches of the county. Designed with ample green space to separate patrons from the city environment, the aquatic center is built on different elevations, accommodating the park’s natural landscape. 

Like Blaisdell, the center has lap lanes, diving boards, and slides, but it features three separate pools. They divide lap swimmers from family fun seekers and leisure swimmers, and if an incident should cause one pool to close, the other two pools can remain open.

A popular lazy river and a Viking theme adopted from a nearby high school separate Shawnee North from SCP+R’s other aquatic facilities. Individuals and families can enjoy a relaxing tube ride through the undulating river that winds around landscaped gardens. During off hours, water walking has become popular with area residents who are seeking a gentle aerobic exercise when walking against the river’s current. 

The Extreme Experience
The latest and largest splash in Shawnee County came with the early August 2016 opening of Midwest Health Aquatic Center. The park caters to the extreme entertainment desires of today’s young patrons. 

“We wanted something different,” explains Dave Allacher, SCP+R aquatics supervisor, “something like a major water park, just condensed.”

The new center’s 35-foot-high water-slide tower, with multicolored, intertwining slides, serves as a billboard beckoning families in passing cars into the complex. The tower also features a speed slide with translucent rings that allow in flashes of light, creating the illusion that riders are going faster than they really are. An open slide, more suitable for younger patrons, completes the structure.

The tower is even designed for two more slides to be added in the future. A $1-million donation from Midwest Health, a provider of senior-living communities, will fund future improvements to the park.

A major “want” of SCP+R was a wave pool with a unique experience. Consultant Counsilman-Hunsaker presented the bow-tie wave-pool concept—the first of its kind in the U.S. Using Aquatic Development Group’s exclusive TwinTides WaveTek system, the pool can generate roller and V-waves from low to moderate intensity, as well as a high-energy, diamond-wave formation. Up to four wave types can be pre-programmed or changed on demand.

Midwest Health Aquatic Center also includes a leisure pool with a zero-depth entry area, a children’s play tower, a wet deck so parents can keep a close eye on toddlers, basketball goals, and a vortex feature, whose currents can carry younger patrons around in circles or be used similarly to a whirlpool by older patrons.

The slide tower is at the site’s highest point. The wave pool is on the middle level with the leisure pool at the lowest point. The design separates thrill-seeking teenagers from toddlers, making the park more family-friendly.

The new aquatic center goes beyond providing next-level entertainment. Matt Pivarnik, president of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, says, “We believe that a facility of this quality will help keep our young people and their families in our community and will help attract others to our community.”

The department’s master plan calls for a multi-generational recreational facility to serve the rapidly expanding southwest portion of the county, and an aquatic facility to replace the now-closed Crestview Pool, which previously served the area.

“The growth of this part of our community has not been matched with a growth in parks and recreation facilities,” says Terry Bertels, SCP+R deputy director of planning, property, and assets. “We are pleased to deliver on a need and to deliver in a big way.”

Lessons Learned
For the $9.25-million Midwest Health Aquatic Center, SCP+R eschewed county government’s typical design, bid, build process that focuses on the low bidder, and instead chose a design-build process. The successful contractor was B.A. Green, Inc., which had built SCP+R’s Bettis Family Sports Complex.

Besides ensuring a contractor with experience in building recreational or aquatic facilities, the past relationship created an upfront comfort level on a project that would have a compressed time frame. Ground breaking was held in November 2015 with a mid-summer target date for opening.

 Bertels advises:  

·       Set a reasonable time frame and schedule. Four to six weeks were lost in obtaining a conditional-use permit to build an aquatic center on city land zoned for residential construction. Eight extra inches of spring rain also delayed grading and moving dirt at key points. 

·       Figure all of the project’s costs, including design fees and professional service fees, and know local codes that impact, for example, the cost of parking lots.

The shortened first season allowed staff to make a few tweaks to the park. Eight feet were added to the mat slides to smooth out an aggressive finish. The original handle on the zip line was replaced with a Y-handle to keep patrons from banging their knuckles when they let go of one side before the other.

The 2017 season will open with lifeguard staff trained to work at all three aquatic centers, and additional concession offerings at Midwest Health Aquatic Center as another “value added” feature of the facility, whose admission prices will be set higher than at SCP+R’s other aquatic centers.

Mike McLaughlin is Communications and Public Information Supervisor for Shawnee County Parks + Recreation in Topeka, Kan. Reach him at mike.mclaughlin@snco.us. 

Previous
Previous

Avoiding The Cookie Cutter

Next
Next

Maintenance Can Be A Beach