The Village of South Jacksonville is offering extended hours at the Play For All Park Splash Pad with the Nichols Park Pool remaining down.
The village opened up extended hours at Godfrey Park back on June 17th. Village Utility Superintendent Brian English says that the City of Jacksonville’s officials approached him and the village to open the splash pad for extended hours: “I spoke with [Jacksonville] Mayor Andy Ezard and he asked if I could open it up a couple days that we are usually do not have it open. It was those couple weeks around the 4th of July, I believe it was, where it got pretty warm. We opened it up from 1-5PM, I think, a few of those days just to help out with the heat and everything trying to keep people cool. Other than that, we have ran it the regular hours. We are looking at changing some hours with the water usage that we’ve been using, trying to save some money for the village. We haven’t decided for sure what we are going to do on it yet, but maybe be open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday is what we’re looking at it. If it’s hot, we will maybe open it up on more days but we’ll decide on that later.”
With the extra hours during the most recent heat wave, the village also accrued extra water costs. The village’s water plant remains offline while it continues to receive lengthy maintenance after multiple problems over the last three years. The village is currently purchasing all of its water from the City of Jacksonville.
Last month’s water bill for the village was over $14,000. Village President Dick Samples says that the city has offered a slight break on the bill due to the pool being down: “They have made a slight donation back to us for the water for the extended hours. [Mayor] Andy [Ezard] has been fine to work with along with all of the utility employees at the City of Jacksonville.” Samples estimated during Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting that the splash pad goes through approximately 5,000 gallons of water per hour that it’s on.
Samples says that the Village Board will open the splash pad up for more usage on days where temperatures get above 85 to 90 degrees and the humidity makes things uncomfortable. In the meantime, Samples says several groups have approached the Village to use the splash pad for private functions: “We have been approached by several of the daycare groups and institutions about wanting to use it on a private basis. I have no problem with that. Pathway school has approached us about using it on a regular basis for their students for the first time.”
The Godfrey Park Splash Pad is located at 598 East Greenwood Avenue. Contact Village Hall at 217-245-4803 if you have any questions or would like to set up a private use for your group or organization.