Marinette splashpad plans taking shape

MARINETTE — There’s nothing like a 60-gallon bucket of water splashing down on you on a hot summer day.

Unless you’re 2 feet tall.

“Little ones figure out pretty quickly they don’t want to be underneath it when it dumps,” said Blake Theisen, principal owner and landscape architect for the Madison, Wisconsin-based company Parkitecture + Planning.

He appeared via Zoom at last week at a Marinette Parks and Recreation Committee meeting. He talked about features for the proposed splashpad to be located adjacent to the Civic Center pool on Alice Lane near Higley Field.

As the name implies, a splashpad allows children the opportunity to splash in the water in a controlled playground-like environment. There are numerous interactive features were children can sit or stand and spray water or get sprayed with water. They can manipulate nozzles and other devices that can control the water pressure. At the center is a big 16-foot high “dump bucket.”

“The dumping bucket has a really big splash zone,” Theisen said. “That’s why we put it in the middle, It will essentially cover the entire south side of the pad.”

Getting back to the younger kiddos, he said there is plenty for them to do on the perimeter of the splashpad. Parkitecture has designed more than 65 splashpads and Theisen said older elementary school and middle school students use it the most.

The current splashpad designed for Marinette is 22 x 50 feet or 1,100 square feet. Theisen said that can accomodate up to 50 kids.

The splashpad wetdeck will have colored concrete, which Thiesen said becomes more vibrant when it is wet.

Marinette has $400,000 budgeted, but the committee isn’t averse to spending a little bit more if they can add a couple of features or make the pad bigger.

Thiesen said he will come back with some more options, including one that will have some smaller dump buckets as opposed to the larger bucket.

“It’s really driven by large dumping bucket,” he said. “If we were to take out the dumping bucket, we could potentially look at several more smaller vertical features that have a much lower flow.

Some committee members, and Mayor Steve Genisot, seemed to favor the dump bucket.

“Kids really gravitate toward that bucket,” Genisot said.

“We don’t want to take away the fun of the splash pad where it becomes just a pad,” alderperson Debbie Klegin said.

The splashpad will be fenced in. Theisen said they will tap into the main water line coming into the Civic Center.

Admission costs, hours of operation and other details will be worked out as the project moves forward.

Once design and development is complete, public bidding will take place, construction started in early summer and completion by the fall.