SEBASTIAN COUNTY, Ark. — The Sebastian County Quorum Court has once again voted against helping cover the cost of new water slides at Parrot Island Waterpark in Fort Smith in a special meeting on July 25.
Just last week, the court voted against the measure but agreed to discuss funding options in a special meeting.
"It's not that we don't like a water park. We love our water park, and we know it's a great amenity for our community, but it was just, I think, too much to stomach in a surprise with our budget," said Sebastian County Judge Steve Hotz.
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 last week that Parrot Island saw 4,000 visitors, setting records this season. A spokesperson for the water park says they hit their capacity of 2,000 people almost daily.
Fort Smith city directors already approved the city's share in the beginning of July. The idea was to split the cost of the project equally between the City of Fort Smith and the county, as they have an agreement in place for things to be even.
However, the city was willing to look into other options. City Director Kevin Settle suggested at Thursday's meeting that the city covers the whole $4.2 million costs while the county pays them back throughout four years, but the measure did not pass.
"It was a lot to evaluate in a short amount of time," Hotz said. "It's $2.1 million. That was just a lot to handle when we have all our other projects and our employees and the citizens of the county to deal with."
Hotz said they only found out about the proposal around the Fourth of July, and they usually plan for a big purchase like this.
"Big ticket items like this, those are budget items," Hotz said. "We don't usually do those on a surprise."
The overall consensus of the seven who voted against the proposal was they felt it was too soon and too much money. They also said they want to invest their money into other areas.
"I'm not against the water park expansion. I'm against this expansion at this time for this dollar amount, because I see too many inconsistencies in these numbers," said Lorrie Runion, a justice of the peace for District 13. "The money we're actually putting into these other outlying parks, into the trail system, into the pickleball courts, the volleyball courts, all of these things are year-round uses."
"There are all kinds of things that we need to be spending money on other than a water park. It's not important," said Jackie Davis, a justice of the peace for District 2. "I feel we've got more priorities we deal with than a water park."
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