It will be without a doubt the crown jewel of the 50-acre Woodward Community Park.
The elaborate serpentine $2.8 million splash pad feature will include “mountains”, “the rain forest” water tunnels, a pebble beach, waterfalls, and a water trail.
It’s location at the center of the park near the main parking lot drop zone and the picnic shelter will make it the main draw at movie nights, food truck events, and community events.
It goes without saying, it will be the place to be for kids to be when the temperatures top 90 degrees.
State-of-the-art water recycling and cleaning means the splash pad will meet state standards for operating in most declared levels of drought.
Suarez & Munoz Construction was awarded the contract at Tuesday’s City Council meeting as the lowest three bidders.
In addition to the splash pad, the project will include various park improvements, such as replacement of the existing restroom building with a new premanufactured restroom building, a new pump equipment building, upgraded landscaping, enhanced seating areas, improved walkways, and accessible amenities.
The project included the additive alternates of shade canopies, walkway to Woodward Avenue and relocation of the existing swing set.
How splash pad is being funded
The initial funding for the splash pad came from. $2.5 million in leftover COVID federal relief funds.
Each council member earmarked $450,000 allocated to them. Mayor Gary Singh designated how another $700,000 would be spent.
Gary Singh and former Councilman Jose Nuno got the ball rolling in the fall of November by setting aside $595,000 in the one-time funds.
The goal was to leverage the $2.5 million with other funding sources to put in place amenities and such the city otherwise wouldn’t be able to secure.
So far the COVID funding has paid for license plate scanners, a rugby pitch at Doxey Park, a community garden across from the library, repaving Yosemite Avenue in downtown Manteca from the train tracks to Main Street, and lighting for the Center Street tennis courts.
The balance of $2.3 million for the splash pad cost is coming from park growth fees.
The bulk of the nearly $13 million in COVID funds the city received went toward addressing pandemic related expenses and to backfill sales tax losses during the mandatory shutdown.
Some was used as “hazard” pay for frontline city employees who had to stay on the job such as police, fire, solid waste workers, street and parks crews, as well as those involved with keeping the waste and wastewater system running and maintained.
The city used money it didn’t need to zero out pandemic related costs went to make health upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, replace dilapidated street equipment, and replace several aging police vehicles.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
