By Betsy Finklea
The City of Dillon is considering putting in a splash pad at the City of Dillon Wellness Center.
The council was presented with an idea of how the splash pad, which was described as a playground with water, might look.
The particular one they were looking at has 13 different water features.
This is located on a 2,000 sq. ft. concrete pad with about 1,000 sq. ft. of concrete pad around it.
The cost for strictly the water features would be roughly $330,000.
This would include labor/installation, water features, water plant operation, and controls/equipment. An estimated cost with the building was about $400,000-$420,000, but there was no official price on the building.
City Attorney Jack McInnis said the liability standpoint concerns him greatly. Street Superintendent Burt Rogers said he thinks the community would really like it. If the city decided to move forward with it, it is estimated that it would take about six months to install.
It would not be ready for this year.
Mayor Todd Davis said if they decided to go with the splash pad project, it could set the pool back several years. They have no prices yet on the pools. Councilman Johnny Eller asked where they were going with the pools.
Wagner said the splash pad and the pools will not serve the same people.
He noted that the splash pad would be an economic driver.
Wagner said that he was not looking for a decision to be made. This was for information.
Councilman Phil Wallace said it may be cheaper to do both at the same time. He said he loved the idea of the splash pad, but he didn’t want to exclude the pool.  
Councilman Douglas Jackson also expressed a concern about the liability.