Supervisors will vote Thursday, Oct. 5, on a new splash pad for the Cranberry Township Community Waterpark for the 2024 season. Submitted photo.

CRANBERRY TWP — Supervisors will vote Thursday, Oct. 5, on a new water feature at Cranberry Township Community Waterpark.

According to township manager Dan Santoro, the township has been reviewing the park’s “deficient” sand play area as part of a comprehensive parks update.

“It’s really sort of outlived its life expectancy,” he said. “We moved all the equipment that was in there with the sand — prior to this season — that was not operational and dangerous — and we’re looking to provide for an upgrade.”

Working with landscape architecture firm PASHEK + MTR, the solution — as presented by strategic planning officer Kyle Beidler — is to replace the sand play area with a new splash pad for children ages 2 to 5.

“Right now, especially during the adult swim, it seems like all the teenage kids kind of dominate the existing splash pad,” Beidler said. “That kind of pushes out the younger age group, so we specifically want to provide the amenity for that age group.”

He said PASHEK + MTR and the township surveyed members of the waterpark this season and received “a lot of support for this project.”

Because the sand play area’s equipment is difficult to replace and the sand itself poses “long-term maintenance problems,” the splash pad provides an ideal alternative, according to Beidler.

“There are two shade structures that will go over the play equipment for the splash pad, providing some shade,” he said. “And (there will be) some kind of seating around the outside to accommodate the parents.”

The splash pad also would include a slide, according to Beidler, as one of the central features “that would work well with this age group.”

“The big key here is that you don’t want a pool area at the bottom of the slide, so there’s no possibility of drowning or endangerment for the children,” he said.

For the supervisor’s consideration Thursday, Beidler said there are two “big, crucial steps” to securing the water feature for next season.

The first step will be to obtain approval for the project’s $32,200 engineering through Herbert, Rowland & Grubic Inc.

“What we have to do is make sure the pumps are sized right, the electric is right, the waterlines all make sense, the final grades,” he told the board. “So we’ll be asking you to consider a proposal on the final engineering next week.”

The next step will be to gain approval for the $85,466 purchase of equipment through Vortex USA Inc.

“There’s such a long delay that we need to put in the purchase (order) for the equipment now to guarantee that it’ll be delivered sometime in February,” Beidler said.

From there, he said public works would begin the demolition of the sand play area in late fall and begin preparation at the site.

“Then in early spring, we’ll contract to get that equipment installed and oversee the construction,” Beidler said. “And all of this is on a pretty concise timeline, because the hope is still to deliver that finished product by the opening of the season on Memorial Day.”

Vice chairman Bruce Hezlep, supervisor, commended the project, noting that he has witnessed the sand play area’s harm to the park’s maintenance “firsthand.”

“Having two children who played in that sand for many, many years, they would get out covered in it,” he said. “I think it’s a great, great improvement.”

Both the engineering design and purchase approval for the project are on the township’s agenda for next week.

“Once we have that design work, then we will have to bid the, I’ll say, ‘site work,’” township manager Dan Santoro said. “So there’s still additional costs to come with this.”

Beidler emphasized that the project was for the benefit of the community as part of the township’s ongoing comprehensive parks update.

“This is all on the heels of increasing membership and ... making sure that we’re always updating the waterpark so it stays relevant with amenities,” Beidler said.