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Splash park to be closed for winter after this weekend
With 80-degree temperatures being predicted for the coming weekend, the Bob York Splash Park at Robe-Ann Park has been given a reprieve on closing for the season.
Instead of shuitting it down immediately, the Greencastle Park Board agreed to close the splash park for the season following Sunday’s activities.
“We haven’t had any full 70-degree days recently, so I was asking to close the splash park for the season in order to get it winterized,” Park Director Rod Weinschenk said.
Meanwhile, Weinschenk reminded the board that the Bloomington Street entrance to the park will remain open all year long unless there is ice or snowfall that might cause slippery conditions and potential accidents within the park.
Robe-Ann Park used to be closed for the season on Oct. 31 and reopen on April 1.
In recent years, however, Weinschenk has kept the main entrance open so people can still use and enjoy the park.
”It didn’t make sense to me to close it,” he explained. “The only people we were locking out were the police officers.”
While the Bloomington Street entrance will remain open, entrances at Wood and Tennessee streets will be closed. They are all but inaccessible anyway due to ongoing road construction.
Meanwhile, at Big Walnut Sports Park, Weinschenk reported vandalism to the basketball goal donated by Kinetic Change five years ago.
“Somebody either threw a rock through it or it was a pistol shot,” the park director reported. ”Ideally, we’d like to replace it with shatterproof glass.”
It marks the second time in five years that the basketball goal has been damaged.
“If we can’t replace it,” Weinschenk said, “we may have to go to something else. Kinetic Change would like to keep it like it was.”
In other business, the Park Board:
-- Learned that the final Phase II improvements at the aquatic center are wrapping up with Mammoth Inc. having one set of double doors to repair and installation of a replacement handle that has not yet arrived. Graves Construction, meanwhile, is scheduled to provide winterization instruction for the water slides.
-- Rescheduled the Glow Throw Disc Golf event for Saturday, Oct. 9 at Big Walnut Sports Park (south shelter) following the rainout on Oct. 2. Registration is at 4 p.m. with round one at 5 p.m. and the glow round at 8:15. Cost is $10 per particpant.
-- Heard Weinschenk report that Thomas Ditching will likely begin work on the new Kinetic Change sand volleyball courts adjacent to the basketball court at Big Walnut Sports Park.
-- Heard Weinschenk report that the sidewalks along the Wood and Tennessee street sides of the park are complete (work is still going on in the streets), and in fact were used by runners in the recent 5K Pink Run for breast cancer. As for the roads nearby, Weinschenk said the first layer of asphalt has been put down while milling is ongoing along Wood Street north of the park entrance. “I could tell it was getting close,” Park Board President Cathy Merrell said.
-- Learned that Civil Engineering Consultants personnel were in Robe-Ann Park Wednesday, doing some survey work in connection with planned improvements to the park.
-- Heard that despite the weekend rain, 160 bicyclists participated in the inaugural Pedal Putnam event that began at Big Walnut Sports Park.
-- Heard Weinschenk report that five DePauw University Bonner Scholars -- Erin Pasch, Ja’el Thomas, Maxim Carroll, Haleigh Mendez and Jacob Droegemueller -- are helping out in the park and with recreastional activities. Two young Latter Day Saints/Mormon missionaries have been helping maintain flower beds at Robe-Ann and Big Walnut. “It’’s good to see young people and get their ideas,” Weinschenk commented.
Joining Weinschenk and Merrell for the 30-minute October Park Board meeting were board members Tim Trigg, Pete Meyer and Joanna Muncie along with Park Maintenance Director David Bault, Assistant Park Director Chrysta Snellenbarger and Councilman Dave Murray.
The next Greencastle Park Board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3 at City Hall.