The current wading pool at Pioneer Park does not meet the health department’s codes. It has to be emptied and refilled multiple times per day.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board studied options for replacing the antiquated wading pool and recommended to the city council a splash pad. This splash pad would be open more often than the wading pool and meet the required health codes.
The city council approved $550,000 from existing capital improvement funds for parks. The council received an overwhelmingly positive response from the community before the vote regarding the splash pad. One councilmember shared they received over 60 emails asking them to approve these funds.
One person who was not supportive of the plan is running for city council this fall in District 2, Heather Shadko. She submitted a letter to the Parks Board (You can read her letter by clicking here).
You can see in the letter that she is uninformed about simple issues. “they are only allowing toddlers” was never discussed but Ms. Shadko wouldn’t know that because she doesn’t do her homework.
As if the letter wasn’t enough, she took to her campaign’s Facebook page to oppose it as well. Here is what she wrote on July 16:
“Tonight at 6:30 is the City Council meeting. On the agenda is approval of $550,000 to replace the playground equipment and remove the wading pool to put in a Splash Pad. I love the idea of the Splash Pad I just don’t think Pioneer Park is the right location. A Splash Pad will be a big draw, with the Farmer’s Market, Pavilion, Library and Pioneer Park itself I think the area will be overloaded. In addition, we have some wonderful, large trees in the park that could be negatively impacted by digging a large hole for a water holding tank. I’m not sure what the rush is on this project.”
These types of projects require vision to be successful. Ms. Shadko seems to have a lack of vision and instead would prefer to not bring an asset to our city’s downtown core.
Puyallup NOW 