HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It appeared that the Hutchinson City Council wants to switch to a neighborhood pool model for aquatics in the city rather than continuing to invest in Salt City Splash at the same level they have for the past 20 years.
The idea would be to build two to three neighborhood pools and trim back to just using the Splash's 50-meter pool for things like summer competitive swimming and special events and potentially have a splash pad next to it, but get rid of the zero entry portion.
The council decided not to make a business case for tourism dollars as the cost to build something bigger and better would be cost-prohibitive for Hutchinson residents for just an 86-day pool season with the school year starting consistently in mid-August.
Salt City Splash had about 90,000 in attendance in its first three years, then a couple of years after that at about 60,000 and then attendance fell off and has been below 40,000 for over a decade.
Hutch Rec staff will be working on scenarios to return to the council with in the coming months.
It was also discussed in the meeting that the city continue dialogue with the YMCA as part of the overall idea generation, as some donations have come in to build a mega facility that could include some aquatic features or a different pool. Ronn McMahon-President and CEO of YMCA of Greater Wichita attended the public meeting on Thursday.