Fulton mulls splash pad in proposed budget

City Council agrees to 5 percent pay increase for city employees, waives parade fee for Jaycees' Christmas route

Further motions on the city of Fulton's 2014 budget have been tabled until the next meeting, but opposition to the proposed splash pad at Memorial Park arose at Tuesday's council meeting.

Before both withdrew their motions, councilmen Mike West and Wayne Chailland both moved to cut the park addition - a 40-by-60 foot addition that would include water jets, sprayers and about a dozen other aquatic features supplied from a circulating filtered water supply - from the budget due to its cost to install and maintain.

"The splash pad in Memorial Park would cost about $200,000," West said. "I still have issues with that. Also there's the annual cost, so right now I can't support that."

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Chailland asked Parks and Recreation Director Clay Caswell whether the area would be used or if appeal would wane over time. Caswell responded that he thought the pad would be used "heavily."

"If you go to the park in Columbia that has one you can hardly find a parking spot," Caswell said. "You can compare it to the Big Bubble Blowout, where we draw 300, 400 people in two hours. It'd be heavily used because it's something unique, it's something every park doesn't have and it'd be an attraction."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.