Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
City officials are planning an open house within the next few weeks to get public input on a proposed downtown plaza, but more specifically on whether a splash pad that was part of the park improvements referendum should be moved there.
No date has been set for the open house, but the Shawano Common Council wants to make a decision on the splash pad location at its October meeting.
The location will affect how the splash pad is designed, and the parks and recreation department wants to get those specifications out to potential bidders before developers are booked up for 2018 projects and start charging higher rates.
Alderwoman Rhonda Strebel said most of the community comments she has heard about a proposed downtown plaza concept have focused on the idea of possibly incorporating the splash pad.
“I think a lot people are in favor of this idea of the plaza,” she said. “I think there’s been a lot of excitement with the connection to downtown. I’ve seen a lot of positive notes on that.”
The plaza would link the 200 block of South Main Street with Franklin Park.
“I’ve heard suggestions of putting (the splash pad) at Franklin instead of a water fountain,” Strebel said.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said the splash pad anticipated by the community would probably not fit with the downtown plaza concept.
“There’s strong desire to have a playground/splash pad,” Knapp said. “A jungle gym, run around, climb, colorful type of a splash pad, and that doesn’t really fit in the plaza concept. It does go with a park, and maybe you choose to put it in a different park. Maybe it would be a good fit in Franklin Park, a little bit closer to the downtown, but it’s pretty clear people really want and expect a playground/splash pad.”
Voters in April overwhelmingly approved a referendum that included a splash pad, widely assumed as replacing the wading pool at Memorial Park, as part of $1.85 million in additional borrowing for development of Franklin and Smalley parks.
City officials say the Memorial Park location was never specified, but some council members argued that that was the community’s expectation.
Alderman John Hoeffs said it’s what the voters in his district want, and it’s what the council had in mind when it approved the borrowing.
“That’s where it should go because that’s where the money was appropriated for and that’s what they want,” Hoeffs said. “I’m totally against moving it out of Memorial Park.”
Alderman Bob Kurkiewicz agreed.
“It was inferred it was going to be at Memorial Park,” he said.
Strebel said, however, that neighbors of Franklin Park are looking for activities for their children.
“People at Franklin Park don’t have things for the kids to do in that part of town,” she said.
She also noted that the plaza concept, including the splash pad, was intended to draw traffic to the downtown business community.
“It brings people to the downtown. That’s where the plaza idea came,” she said.