MONROE — The Monroe City Council’s Finance and Taxation Committee will discuss the potential construction of a splash pad at Twining Park at its next meeting, Monday, Feb. 10.
Monroe City Clerk Brittney Rindy said although the issue was on the committee’s agenda, the time of the start of the meeting has yet to be determined as of Feb. 6.
The splash pad project has been proposed by the Green County Leaders, who are looking to raise half of the capital costs of the project and donate that to the city. The city would then be responsible for paying half of the capital costs and the yearly maintenance costs as long as the splash pad is in operation.
Recent estimates by the leaders are that the total capital investment for the splash pad would be $280,000 and the annual maintenance costs, including water use, would be $7,000-$5,000 per year. Earlier annual maintenance cost estimates had been as high as $15,000.
The splash pad is projected to be constructed at Twining Park with water flow-through and drainage going into Honey Creek.
The splash pad issue was discussed by the council with a large audience in attendance at a meeting in January. At that time there was some thought that because the city’s budget for 2020 has been finalized, further discussion on the splash pad should be delayed until budget discussions for 2021 begin in approximately August.
Alderperson Josh Binger said he was interested in seeing the splash pad issue go before the finance and taxation committee sooner to allow the Green County Leaders an opportunity to continue to plan the project with the city.
Binger said he was pleased to see the topic on the Feb. 10 meeting of the committee.
“Obviously everything we do needs to go through the proper committee and the proper protocol should be followed,” Binger said. “… To me it’s worth discussion and considering details of the project now because we have great participation from the Green County Leaders and there’s significant public interest.”
Binger said that although it’s unlikely the full council will take up the project for a while, by talking through the splash pad project at committee meetings the city will be prepared to make decisions.
Binger said he’s the parent of young children and they visited a splash pad in Verona last summer. The experience overall was positive and the group of people on the trip left tourism dollars in Verona in a number of ways, Binger said. The splash pad could draw interest from people in smaller communities in the area. Binger said that unlike a larger pool, there’s less fear for a parent of having a child in a potential water hazard.
“This is a project to better our community,” Binger said. “To see how invested the Green County Leaders are about it is exciting. The project still has to go through all of the steps to be adopted by the city council, but if we can be talking about it now, it helps.”