ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Adventure Bay Water Park has been a Liberal staple for many years now and soon, it will be demolished in order for renovation work to happen.

At the most recent Liberal City Commission meeting, the commission unanimously voted to award a contract to Stoppel Dirt LLC, in the amount of $250,905.19 for the work. As Recreation Director Matt Quint tells it, the decision toward demolition took a long time.

“When you looked at the whole water park from the street, it looked fine. A lot of patrons and people thought it looked okay, but once we got to inside the facility and  we were able to do a walk through with all the commissioners and other city leadership and everybody involved there, we showed them the issues we have to deal with day to day,” Quint said. “For example, with the pirate ship, there was sinking going on there. We also had water lines broken, and those were coming out of the pump house. The pump house was also starting to cave in. Over time, we had a lot of issues, and I think when everybody was able to see that with their own eyes, it helped everyone realize we were in big trouble. And then when you start factoring in the pricing of all that, it made more sense to demo for this season and start for fresh for the 2027 season rather than basically put a band-aid on everything. I feel like it was a tough decision, but the right decision moving forward. We wanted to get it going immediately on the demo side of it. Then on the build of everything, that’s going to take some time. We’re getting a lot of interest from companies out there for the build work, so that’s exciting.”

Quint said with the park having been part of the community for so long, there are a lot of mixed emotions about the project.

“It’s been in town for about 14 years now and we’ve given blood, sweat and tears on all aspects of it,” Quint said. “So there are a lot of great memories and a lot of great employees and managers have come through there, and I know some of them wanted to take a bulldozer to the place and wanted to be some of the first to help destroy it. All in all, it’s an amazing facility and it has brought so much joy to our community and so many people into our community. It’s been just an amazing thing for Liberal. There’s a lot of bittersweetness, but we’re so excited about some of the drawings coming in and ideas we have for the facility. So the future is going to be bright. I know it’s sad, and there have been some young kids who have been upset at us, but we understand that. And having the splash pads open, I think, has kind of lessened the anger to say. But I just keep telling people, ‘You guys are going to love what we’re about to do.’”

And the renovations that could be coming, Quint said, should be wonderful for the community.

“We’ve gotten back several different drawings, and there’s a lot of cool stuff,” Quint said. “A great example is the lazy river and some of the features attached to that. There are also some slides, a flow rider and a surfing simulator, which has been on a lot of people’s minds, and I know a lot of people are excited and talking about it. But the number one thing is the lazy river, that’s definitely going to happen. It’s going to be, it’s going to be sweet. Overall, it’s going to be very creative and very cool, and I think people are going to look back and say ‘Yeah, that was awesome, and money well spent.”

Quint said he is excited for the project to get started.

“I think once ground starts breaking, once they start doing demo, I think then it’ll feel more real,” Quint said. “Right now, we took all the stuff out of the rooms and everything out of the pump house. But I think once the demolition starts, then I’ll start thinking ‘Okay, this is this is really happening,’ and that’s when the excitement, I think on my end, will be great. We’re also thinking what kinds of programs can we do, how can we get people there on certain days, and what can we do to make sure we have a steady stream of people coming in all summer. We also have to think about what are the timelines and staffing and everything else. I know Ismael Carrillo, the pool manager, and a lot of the other staff members are feeling a lot of excitement as well.”

Quint added there will be many benefits to the Adventure Bay Water Park renovations.

“Safety is the number one thing, that will definitely be a bonus for everyone,” Quint said. “There were also so many issues in terms of water lossage – we were losing quite a bit of water every day filling up the baby pool and the ship pool, so I think that’s going to be key to it. That overall newness will also be great because everybody wants new stuff. The lazy river should be a big hit, the community has been asking for that basically since I moved here.”

Overall, Quint said, the new Adventure Bay should be a big hit for patrons when it reopens next season.

“What I really enjoy is when families are able to spend time together, and you hear kids laughing and see parents enjoying seeing their kids run wild and just be kids,” Quint said. “I think that’s the beauty of summer. When you start thinking of summer, you think of water parks, and you start thinking of water and enjoying yourselves, and I really like that. That’s why we work in this position, and that’s why we work for the Recreation Center and provide for the community, That’s always a great joy, and I think the new space is going to bring people to town. What really excites me is just the families coming in enjoying themselves and seeing people from area towns coming into our great town and experiencing what we have to offer. We’re still getting bids back, and we’re receiving emails from companies all across the country, and even one from England, which is really cool, so that just shows you how far out it goes. There’s a lot of excitement on that side of it, and this is fun, and we just can’t wait to get this going and to show the community everything we’ve got going. I also have to give a big thank you to all the city departments for helping out and getting a lot of the stuff done behind the scenes that doesn’t really get a whole lot of recognition. We want to say thank you to all those people and all the city staff and city management.”