July 16, 2019 Heber City Council approved by a 3-2 vote the idea of a splash pad on Heber City property, as presented by volunteer organization CAMS Chairman Tom Stone. Stone presented a plan that was conceived by Wasatch CAPS students last spring, and with funding from a private donor Stone feels the project is ready to move forward. “The request I have tonight, or discussion item is a request for a splash pad location on city property. I want to take you through that process to this particular request and what has been put into it and how we got here. In those discussions amongst ourselves, amongst the city, and even some things we’ve heard from you. There are many different things that are concerns or questions that have been brought up. I want to address those quickly, and then address any questions afterwards if that’s ok. First thing is where are we getting the money. Financing. I’m happy to report that we have a private donor who will fund the entire project. And so my request is not to ask you for the money that has been taken care of. Number two one of the concerns or questions we wanted to make sure with this splash pad request is safety. When we think about that we want to make sure, obviously, that the children will be safe. Now when I introduce this I want to tell you the location that we are going to ask for. The location is simply right here, between the county building and the tabernacle. We have gone through many different locations, different places, and we’ve come up with this one.”
However, concerns from council members Ron Crittenden and Heidi Franco about water use, safety, operations and maintenance did indicate that more work is to be done to fully understand the scope of the project and reality of constructing a free community splash pad in Heber City.
