Thinking of summer? Consider Pine’s splash pad

If a relatively mild winter has you thinking about summer, keep a prime Pine attraction in mind.

The splash pad at Pine Community Park is receiving a new ultraviolet water-treating system, thanks to township supervisors approving its $42,100 purchase during their Feb. 20 meeting. The cost is well below the $55,000 allocated in the 2024 municipal budget.

During talks leading up the budget’s adoption, questions arose about usage of the splash pad, which opened in July 2020. Because of covid-related restrictions at the time, the township set up an online registration system, and no walk-in guests were allowed.

With the system as instituted remaining in place, the pad averaged 30 guests per two-hour session in 2023, although the registration maximum is set at 120 people.

Township officials are considering measures to boost attendance, including the possibility of allowing walk-ins and scheduling movie nights, special days for youngsters to bring toys, and a closing-day invitation for dogs to enjoy the spray.

A proposal is to make the entire facility available for rental after 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, which have been tracked as the times of least use. The fee could be “comparable to a trampoline park,” assistant township manager Stacey Graf said, as a way to generate more revenue.

The pad operated at a $6,985.73 deficit in 2023, but she said some of gains could be made with proceeds from a concession stand that opened last summer.

Other ideas for bringing the pad into the black include raising the rent for the onsite picnic pavilion to $90 for Pine residents and $150 for nonresidents, making the amount in line with other pavilions in community park, and charging $5 daily admission for guests who live outside the township, up from the current $3.

Residents of Pine and members of its community center are admitted for free, which is expected to continue.

Supervisor Pat Avolio expressed concern about the township’s long-term investment in the splash pad considering less-than-optimal attendance.

“The idea is not that this is a profit-generating thing, but are residents, are children, utilizing it? And it seems that’s pretty light,” he said. “If we had double the amount of township residents, zero revenue, I’d be in favor of that. How do we get to that point?”

Township manager Jason Kratsas suggested enhanced marketing, and he mentioned difficulties with the pad’s original water-treating system as having an adverse effect on the number of guests.

“We had a lot of closures last year, where we had to close down the pad for a couple of days because the UV system was causing us problems,” he said, with the closures including Memorial Day and Labor Day. “It was a small unit, and it would throw an error code that it wasn’t able to get all the disinfectant that it needed, and it was shutting down the rest of the system as a safety precaution.”

For that unit, no local repair support is available.

“The only place we can get somebody to come in and work on it is east of Philadelphia,” Kratsas said. “So getting timely maintenance was next to impossible.”

He told supervisors that the newly purchased system has a higher capacity, and the manufacturer has a nearby presence.

“If we run into problems with this one,” he said, “we could have the service tech out there that day fixing it.”

Audrey Mackie, who chairs the board of supervisors, called the splash pad “great amenity that we offer the township” and said she favors allowing guests to show up on the spot.

“One of the biggest things I hear is: People after practices in the summer, they just want to let their kids come over, and kind of run through and cool off,” she said.

Regarding the most basic way to increase participation this summer, Graf offered:

“Hope for better weather.”