Hawk Island Spray Park
If you drive through Hawk Island Park in 2006, your eyes may be drawn to the park’s newest attraction, a water spray park. “A Splash Pad is basically a playground with water added. Typically Splash Pads hold no standing water. Instead, water shoots from fountains, jets, falls, hoses, arches, water guns or through water curtains, then drains away. Children interact with the water features and with each other”.
(Bales, Beth, Spray it Again, Parks & Recreation magazine, Nov. 2003)Water Splash Pads have many advantages over regular pools. From an operational perspective, a water spray park makes perfect sense. Since it is a zero depth facility, there is no cost of providing lifeguards as would be required with a traditional pool or lake.
Construction was completed in August of 2006 and the Splash Pad will be open, weather permitting, 9:00am to sunset through the month of September. The new 6,000 square foot water park will be located adjacent to the bathhouse building at Hawk Island. The $300,000 project will be financed by Ingham County, the City of Lansing, and a grant in the amount of $150,000 from the National Park Service’s Land & Water Conservation Fund. Continuing a long tradition of cooperation and partnership, the City of Lansing has contributed $50,000 to make this project possible.
Grab your suit and a towel and we will see you at Ingham County’s newest water attraction!