Loop 034 printable

Volume 2, No. 10. June 14, 2002

New Arrivals

It’s a waterpark!
The City of Golden, Colorado, announces the arrival of The Splash at Fossil Trace, June 8, 2002. Measurements: 5 acres (2 hectares), two slides, one lap pool, one lazy river, one activity zone, 59 employees. Delivered by Anchor Industries, Lyon Workspace Products, Neptune Benson, Rectrack, Sevylor, Spectrum Pool Supply, Strantrol, Sun Ports International, Tex Craft, Vindan Print Broker, Wave Unit and Whitewater West.

Though Golden’s new waterpark was not officially opening until the next day, 1,500 people played there on Friday, June 7, the seventh day of the park’s soft opening, a day when the thermometer hit 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). Charlie Fagan, parks and recreation director for the City of Golden, experienced firsthand the impact of so many people on his small park. “When the park closed at 6 (18,00) we had to clean it up to get ready for the ribbon cutting party at 7 (19,00),” he said. “That was quite the chore.”

He and his team got it done, though, and the 350 people “who helped make this thing happen—the construction workers, city crew, city council, the city departments” witnessed the ribbon cutting to live music and munchies, Fagan said. Saturday’s official public opening came under cool, overcast skies, but some 700 people attended, and 1,200 turned out for a blue-sky Sunday. The weekend-long celebration included T-shirt giveaways, sandcastle building contests, water balloon tosses, and giant cannonball splash-making competition at the park’s pool.

The Splash at Fossil Trace is actually an offshoot of the city’s new golf course, called Fossil Trace for the real dinosaur tracks left on the site. The course is due to open next year, but Golden’s parks and recreation officials wanted to brand the name, and determined that a waterpark was a viable means to do it. The Splash’s opening could not be better timed. Day two of the soft opening saw record high temperatures.