Intermittent closure of Turner Valley’s spray park is the result of glitches that often come with operating a new facility, according to the Town.
The Town of Turner Valley has been responding to minor mechanical glitches as it familiarizes itself with the operation of the spray park since it opened on May 30.
This has resulted in intermittent closures of the new park and questions among residents.
“In early June we shut it down for two weeks to make sure it was completely commissioned,” said Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck. “We knew, this being the first year of operations, there were going to be glitches. We are just working with them.”
The spray park was a project of the Foothills Lions Club, which turned over ownership of the park to the Town at the end of May.
Tuck said like many facilities, when operations first start there are often a few minor hiccups to work out.
“We’re just finding that along the way there’s just some mechanical things that we’re all learning how to operate,” she said. “If we’re going to have glitches let’s have them right out front when the warranty is still there.”
Tuck said each time the park is closed, the Town posts it on its website.
She added that since the beginning of June the park hasn’t been closed for more than 24 hours at a time.
The mechanical operations and maintenance of the park is under the care of a contractor who was trained earlier this sprig and is also in charge of the town’s other operations, said Tuck.
“Having him on board right from the get-go gives him that firsthand knowledge,” she said.
Andy Pfeifer, the Town’s director of municipal operations and engineering, said the spray park is a complicated setup considering the computer system runs the electrical system which runs the mechanical system.
“It’s all interconnected,” he said. “Day in and day out we might be shut down for an hour trying to repair and figure out the code. Once we find out where it’s faulting we track down the electrical and mechanical people. We’re still working out some of these little bugs.”
Turner Valley’s spray park operates at three levels, the lowest geared for younger park users and the highest for older users, therefore the Town is still working around finding a system that will work for all park users, said Barry Williamson, Turner Valley’s chief administrative officer.
“You don’t want a lot of water coming out with toddlers in the park,” he said. “We can adjust that so we don’t have the top level going.”
Williamson considers the park still in “test mode.”
“We have to figure out what’s the best way to keep this thing running,” he said. “It’s about balancing levels, balancing timing of the phasing and figuring out the operational nuances.”
Willliamson said the Town received calls from the public in early June asking why the park isn’t working and is asking for their patience throughout the remainder of the summer.
“Because it’s the first season having it up and running we will have to deal with whatever the bugs of a new facility are,” he said. “We are holding ourselves to the health and operational standards and the regulations required.”
