What's Up with the Wave Pool?

Water Works Park's highly anticipated wave pool opening has been delayed.

The city has been working on the wave pool since voters approved the project in November 2014.

Denton Parks and Recreation Director Emerson Vorel presented a refund plan during Tuesday’s city council work session to those who have already purchased a pass for the water park.

Delays and misjudged timing on the city’s part, according to Vorel, caused multiple opening dates to be pushed back. As of right now, the park plans on opening its doors May 27–29 for Memorial Day weekend, opening daily starting June 3, and then opening the much-anticipated wave pool July 1.

The plan proposes lowering fees back to their 2015-16 price range in hopes of making amends with loyal customers. Daily admission fees would see a $6 price reduction and park passes a $10 reduction.

Councilwoman for District 2 Keely Briggs supported the fee reduction.

“I am in favor of the fee reduction,” Briggs said. “As you know from the beginning, I was not in favor of the fee increase.”

Although the fee decrease suited most council members in the room, the delay disappoints other council members who had hoped the pool's construction would be finished on time.

Councilwoman for District 3 Kathleen Wazny freely voiced her disappointment with the project.

“I’m not happy with the delays,” Wazny said. “I’ll be the elephant in the room.”

According to city documents, the Water Works Park contract did not include a liquidated damages provision. This provision would have set a specific amount of money to be paid out in the event the company failed to fulfill their side of the contract. It was revealed that most Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects do not include such a provision.

Despite the apparent issue the absence of the liquidated damages provision presents, District 6 councilwoman Sara Bagheri pointed out that some good will come of this.

“The silver lining of this whole thing is that the council found out that all of our contracts don’t have any type of late construction provisions,” Bagheri said. “So that’s potentially going to be a huge savings going forward.”

For more information and park updates, visit www.dentonwaterworks.com.

 Header image design by Christopher Rodgers