Now in the okc metro area?
Does this have anything to do with the city trying to save a buck or are there other reasons?
I cant imagine a child being excited about going to whats basically a concrete slab and getting sprayed with water as opposed to an actual dip in the pool.

When you compare the risk/value management metric to the situation described, above, it is obvious that drowning and e-coli ingestion are minimized by spray parks rather than swimming pools. Anti-Injury Slip Helmets (for rent or for sale) are on the drawing boards as we speak. The current recreation model is that children--and the adults they become--will be much easier to deal with when the terms "fun" and "excitement" are eliminated from their (that is, the young un's') vocabulary.

To suggest otherwise is Olde Schoole and would probably also raise objections to the "Love The Morlocks" campaign, also on the drawing boards. (i know . . . obscure reference . . . look up H.G. Wells).

One positive is that spraygrounds are more sanitary.

Crossed-Posts at the Speed of Internet Life . . .
Dang! =)

Have two kids under four and they love splash pads...Pools not so much

Have two kids under four and they love splash pads...Pools not so much

Our little one likes them too. He is still too young to really play in a pool safely.

Also, I would imagine that the spray parks are much less expensive to maintain than a pool.

When I was a kid we had a "Splash Park" . . . It was called a Lawn Sprinkler.
The more daring parents in the neighborhood had a "Slip-N-Slide".
(water hose, roll of plastic, slight backyard slope . . .
pretty much the Hula-Hoop or Frisbee of "Water Recreation")

Both of these distractions served only to pacify us until one parent or another got tired enough of the childish nagging to drive us to a local municipal pool--one of which was actually named after an Astronaut!!!.

Fun? . . . Excitement??? i scoff at these obsolete terms.

(except for remembering how much it would piss off the local primary school janitor when we tried to make the lawn watering system on the playground our own personal water park. we never dissed him though...not like a bus driver...he was, like a real mean guy about our dads' age who wasn't our dad.)

It does cost less to maintain spray grounds than pools but also the usage of the older style just a pool has been declining for a while. There was one that went free for a while but that certainly does not help operations cost or maintenance. A few older pools have been removed due needing major restoration work to continue operations but had low attendance so it is hart to justify spending it for that.

Speaking of Slip-n-Slide, there was another water hose toy heavily advertised at the time. You'd hook it up and it'd go all crazy. Had a catchy name, but whatever was the thing called?

Edit: Never mind, it was the Water Wiggle!

Many of the neighborhood pools were at the end of the "useful life" for pool equipment, most were in dire need of replacement and had obsolete equipment beyond repair and many of the pools themselves needed repair. It just would've been cost prohibitive to replace the equipment and repair all the neighborhood pools They doesn't even take into account the liability issues with a regular pool over a sprayground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvGH8n0_-pw

If you have a large enough yard, you can have your own private pool and a slip-n-slide too. But be warned, once your kid's friends find out it then becomes the neighborhood pool by default.

Easy180, my kids started in the pool around 3-4 (my youngest around 2). Get some water wings for them and spend a lot of time with them in the pool and they'll be swimming like dolphins before you know it.

The downside is that you'll have to adjust your budget for all that raw fish you have to feed them . . .
Not to mention the treatments for chlorine addiction and all the fences and guard towers you'll have to erect to keep out unauthorized neighborhood youth seeking the hope of fun and excitement.

(just kiddng....)

I have a 4 year old who absolutely loves the spray grounds. There are always lots of kids there. We go several times a week and she would go every day if we would take her. We also use the surrounding picnic tables. We have a good old fashioned picnic and the kids have a great time. It is a great way to get out and enjoy the park. Best of all it is free.

I bought my 4 yearold a slip n slide on saturday. 12 bucks, she and her friends used it all weekend. Cheap entertainment and still popular after all of these years.

Yes . . . As I implied--or the commercial said--"Unbelievable! Fun!! and Magic!!!"
(Maybe "Timeless, Inexpensive, Fun and Magic" . . . would be more appropriate in these modern, enlightened times?)

One of our local public pools, "The Municipal Pool" (later "Spruce Pool" after they tore down the ancient wooden enclosure surrounding and covering it) had the nickname, "The Polio Pit" and the other, "Scott Carpenter Pool", was the scene of more than one event reminiscent of that swimming pool scene in "Caddyshack" . . .

All things considered, I think that Spray Parks and Slip-N-Slides are both excellent ideas.
(Those spray parks don't have concrete play surfaces, do they? I hope not. For safety--and FUN!--they should be more like trampolines.)

The sprayground at E.B. Jeffery Park at NW 16th and Meridian has completely rejuvenated the Musgrave-Pennington neighborhood. On a Saturday afternoon, you can count dozens, if not nearly a hundred children, parents, families (of all ethicities) playing in the water, and the adjoining basketball court. It really is a wonderful sight of community and goodwill, with everyone enjoying the weather and the neighborhood. Prior to the spraygrounds, it was a wading pool and the park was under-utilized and visited. The spraygrounds are an awesome addition to the city's older neighborhoods.

I had a plastic fire hydrant you hooked up to the hose. It has little tubes that came off of it and sprayed everywhere... good times.

The spray ground near SW 18 and Robinson is always packed.

The City's sprayground program has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the City's aquatics program, as well as on the neighborhoods where spraygrounds are located. By estimation (counts are conducted throughout the day), sprayground attendance for 2011 was approximately 407,000. Attendance at the two Family Aquatic Centers (Will Rogers and Earlywine) was 120,000, and total pool attendance was 33,000 for the City's five pools.

As noted by LordGerald and others, they have had a positive impact on the surrounding neighborhoods as well. More people are using the park which means that the parks are inherently safer by default. Drive by almost any of the sprayground locations on a summer day and you will see it teeming with children and adults.

Use of standard municipal pools is and has been on the decline for many years, as people are looking for more "bang for their buck," which is why the sprayground model works so well. It is cost effective, and easily maintained. Additionally, as many private developments are building pools for exclusive use by their own residents, there is less need for individual neighborhood pools. This is a national trend and not just exclusive to Oklahoma City. Cities across the country are opting for the more interactive model of aquatic programming, and are including more and more spraygrounds (splash pads) in their mix.

On average, a "standard" pool costs approximately $39,000 to operate annually. Spraygrounds average about $11,000 annually, so there is significant cost savings per individual unit.

The local experience has been that people are coming to the spraygrounds with camping chairs, coolers, shade covers (there are already shade covers at each site) and staying for several hours at a time. They are almost always packed from the time they open until the time they close, and when they are not in use, the water shuts off so there is not a water waste.

While it would be nice to have as many Family Aquatic Centers as there are other pools, they are simply cost-prohibitive in that building one from scratch takes several million dollars.

The spray ground near SW 18 and Robinson is always packed.

Does most of the illicit activities in the neighborhood remain a ways south of there, or is the activity on Robinson an issue up near 18th and the spray ground and park as well?

I had a plastic fire hydrant you hooked up to the hose. It has little tubes that came off of it and sprayed everywhere... good times.

http://images-02.delcampe-static.net/img_large/auction/000/073/369/924_001.jpg
Amen, amigo.

(of course, when i was a child and we came "down here" to visit the grandparents,
i felt a bit guilty about grandma having to work so hard pumping the lever on that
rusted old mechanical well pump in their "backyard" next to the 1940's version
"well house with the electric pump" . . .
just so's the hose would work.
the other hose--from the well house--
was for the swamp cooler window AC unit
with the big, mossy fan.)

Sorry . . . I digressed . . .
I am glad to see that Oklahoma City is well on the way to becoming a Major League City and learning the value of water conservation vis-a-vis "pools/huge toilets" as compared to "Spray Parks".


"Does most of the illicit activities in the neighborhood remain a ways south of there, or is the activity on Robinson an issue up near 18th and the spray ground and park as well?"

(BTW, Bro. Pate: Isn't it "Do" rather that "Does" within the context of the terms phrasing the question? =)
Sorry, this is a "Feel Good" rather than Political/Grammar thead. I apologize for the gaffish faux pas . . . =)

oopsey.

yah, shure . . . yew betcha.
it coulda been worse . . . doncha know . . .=)

The downside is that you'll have to adjust your budget for all that raw fish you have to feed them . . .
Not to mention the treatments for chlorine addiction and all the fences and guard towers you'll have to erect to keep out unauthorized neighborhood youth seeking the hope of fun and excitement.

(just kiddng....)

LOL, I just lock the gates. Haven't had anyone scale the fence yet, but perhaps I should look into the cost of adding razor wire.

LOL, I just lock the gates. Haven't had anyone scale the fence yet, but perhaps I should look into the cost of adding razor wire.

(glad you got the "joke" mr. monk ... =)

[PSA/Ad For/Pending Approval of The Local HOA]:

Hubby: Hey, Babs! Was that the echo of a dolphin in search of some spray that I just heard?
Or was it the sound of a "Marketing Niche" just opening up like a rusted pool gate?

Hubbette: Gee, Herb . . . I'm not sure . . .

Announcer (like, really loud and overbearing, yet believable):
Wonder no more!!!
Wham-O . . . in conjuction with Gillette and K-Tel . . .
Presents: DIY Pool Protection Razor Wire!!
Easy to install and completely effective in eradicating those pesky pool pests!!
Eliminates those Fence-Scaling Scofflaws and frees up time to scale fish for the dolphins!
(Gloves, Sharks and Tuna not included)

Spraygrounds Rule!
Pools . . . Not so much . . .

There is an amazing spray ground at the Myriad Gardens...oh wait...it's still broken.

There is an amazing spray ground at the Myriad Gardens...oh wait...it's still broken.

Thankfully it's the summer and no kids want to use it right now

Thankfully it's the summer and no kids want to use it right now

Cold. Real cold. Just like the water would be .. if there was any.

Get out there and pretend there's water. Kids these days just can't seem to use their imagination any more. Back in my day, water wasn't even discovered yet, we had to use dirt - and we liked it! Hell, shade wasn't invented until after I was out of high school! Grumble grumble...

rimshots all around....
:pat_head:

Yeah it pretty much has to deal with spray grounds being cheaper than pools. I realize every one is talking about how their four year old love spray grounds. But what about 8 year old's or 10 year old's and other school aged children. They really don't have any where to go and swim during the summer and I mean like 3 times a week or at least once a week. Could leaving some of these pools open have helped kids or family's get a little bit more exercise during the summer. It could actually slow growth of obesity since OKC is considered one of the fatter cities in America. I wouldn't think spray grounds would actually save that much more water than pools. Is it even a significant amount of water being saved?

Also there are only 7 public pools in OKC (2 are at Will Rogers) so yeah not many places for school aged kids to go and swim regularly and they're all pretty far apart so their are lot of kids that can't walk/take a bus to the pool a couple of times a week.


http://www.okc.gov/parks/pools/index.html

That is a concern raised by at least one member of Council a while back that while cheaper etc, it also removes the opportunity for the lower income folks to learn how to swim. One area where spraygrounds save money is the shear amount required by the two, and I think that the sprayground water is recirculated so most is recovered. Thought it a little odd as the City was closing down public pools that we couldn't afford to maintain, that they were pitching the Senior Aquatic Centers in MAPS 3.

The sprayground at 12th & May is always busy in the summer. That park was empty all the time until that sprayground was installed.

That is a concern raised by at least one member of Council a while back that while cheaper etc, it also removes the opportunity for the lower income folks to learn how to swim. One area where spraygrounds save money is the shear amount required by the two, and I think that the sprayground water is recirculated so most is recovered. Thought it a little odd as the City was closing down public pools that we couldn't afford to maintain, that they were pitching the Senior Aquatic Centers in MAPS 3.

Yea, when they were doing the MAPS3 proposal I was thinking they might be doing smaller pools geared more to group exercise than lap swimming like was being removed, after they did the RFP I was surprised they were making as much focus on aquatics with how many things were planned to have space.

If citizens patronized the public pools more often there would be no need for spraygrounds. Just saying.

I don't think it's that simple, krisb. Many people lack transportation to make it to one of the pools. And it's easier to let the kids play at the neighborhood sprayground than to load them all up and take them somewhere else. They're cheaper, safer and the kids seem to really like them. I don't know what's not to like.

I don't think it's that simple, krisb. Many people lack transportation to make it to one of the pools. And it's easier to let the kids play at the neighborhood sprayground than to load them all up and take them somewhere else. They're cheaper, safer and the kids seem to really like them. I don't know what's not to like.

Funny thing is 2 of the spray grounds Douglas and McKinley are both right next to old pools that were closed down. So it's not like someone would have a problem taking their kid literally 20 or 30 feet further. It's mostly because it's cheaper but it's not any where near as healthy as swimming in a pool and getting actual exercise. It's not like it's safer either Pools have life guards to at least watch kids. I'm not sure all kids love spray grounds keep in mind people were saying "my four year old loves it". So kids love the same thing at 8 then they did at 4 these people kids are probably gonna want to go swimming in a few years. Looks like fewer kids well have memories like these.

vr5lHZQz-Z4

I remember back in the day one of the neighborhood moms loading up the station wagon with kids and dropping us all off at hefner optimist pool and activity center and 2 bucks would cover admission as well as some snacks. So now kids are given spraygrounds which are basically a slab of cement with a water wiggle on top......wow how exciting.
Face it......the city of OKC is just to cheap to rebuild/maintain pools.

I remember back in the day one of the neighborhood moms loading up the station wagon with kids and dropping us all off at hefner optimist pool and activity center and 2 bucks would cover admission as well as some snacks. So now kids are given spraygrounds which are basically a slab of cement with a water wiggle on top......wow how exciting.
Face it......the city of OKC is just to cheap to rebuild/maintain pools.

There were councilmen in favor of renovating the ones that have closed (at least over the last 10 years) and kept them open while there was other calling for them to be closed but in most cases the usage numbers for pools being closed were terrible, they tried a few different things to attempt to get numbers up but outside of making them free to use not much had any significant effect, on top of that the sponsor who said they would cover support the maintenance for the pool in that trial pulled out after the trial started.

Much of the lack of attendance at pools could also be due to the "safe parent" mentality and trying to make their kids world a safety bubble void of any risk. The perception that their kid can't drown at a sprayground may drive the increased use of those over a pool. I know of some who wouldn't think twice about taking their kid there but wouldn't consider going to a pool or White Water because of the "danger" involved. The ironic thing is these people grew up going to pools and White Water and nothing bad happened to them.