FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Sebastian County Quorum Court has voted against helping cover the cost of new water slides at Parrot Island Waterpark in Fort Smith.
"This kind of fell in our lap just a couple weeks ago, so not enough time to digest everything involved, and that's a substantial amount of money to spend when it's not even in our budget," County Judge Steve Hotz said. "We will continue to support our park. It was just just too big of a project to hit without planning for it."
The $4.2 million dollar project includes the addition of five new slides to the park. The city was offered a discounted rate for the set of slides whose installation in a Florida park fell through. City Administrator Carl E. Geffken said the city was ready for the water park to grow. He explained that Parrot Island saw 4,000 visitors setting records this season.
"As it stands, we normally do expand the park every two years or so so to add five slides at once, basically takes about eight to 10 years worth of expansion and shrinks it down," Geffken said. "You're talking 8- potentially $9 million to do the work. And we would have saved a lot of money being able to do it for the initial estimates of $4.2 million."
Officials said purchasing these slides would speed up the expansion and improve the waterpark's activities, "further solidifying its position as a premier water park" in the region.
The idea was for the city and the county to split the cost evenly, but that has now been shifted. Geffken said the city plans to work with the county to find a solution. The Sebastian County Judge said the quorum court already shared concerns about extra parking, concessions, and ticketing that were not in the initial plan.
"I think part of the concerns by some of the quorum court members is that this was a good start, but there may be additional costs along the way," Judge Hotz said.
"We understand that sometimes in the passage of work by a city or a county, sometimes a no could really mean, 'Hold on. I need more information.' There's a way that we can revisit it" Geffken said.
Fort Smith City directors have already approved the city's share.
The Sebastian County Quorum Court will discuss the expansion project at the Fort Smith Courthouse on Thursday, July 25, at 6 p.m.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.