Splash pads are recreation areas with spouts and sprayers that have no standing water. It’s a popular way to cool off — but they’re missing in Lubbock. The nearest public splash pad is 15 minutes away in Shallowater’s Young City Park.
Now that Lubbock’s Montelongo Pool is temporarily closed for repairs, the need for more outdoor water play areas grows as summer burns on.
Coleton Verett said he’s seen Lubbock families ask for splash pads for years. One mother even started a Facebook page campaigning for the city to build them across town. It’s why Verett started West Texas Splash Pads, a local splash pad installation company, in 2015.
“We strictly started the business just because it was a market that no one had tapped into, and there was a huge need for it here in Lubbock,” Verett said.
Most of the company’s customers are daycares and homeowners’ associations looking to build private splash pads, but his team also installs them in people’s backyards. They do two to three projects each month.
Verrett has heard talk of the city’s potential plans to build splash pads for the public. Still, he said the concerns about health risks and consulting contractors from Dallas or San Antonio might be in the way of any progress for now.
“What we've seen with the couple out-of-town installs here in town is once it's been installed, the companies are gone,” Verett said. “They're five, six hours away, and they have zero ambition to come back and do a $25 repair on it and make a 12-hour trip.”
Chase Helms is the aquatics coordinator for the City of Lubbock. He said a 10-year plan is in the works to improve Lubbock’s parks and recreation amenities, and that includes building splash pads. But, there’s no set time frame.
“The master plan will be an overview and an objective to where we are wanting to go while meeting the citizens’ wants and demands on a reasonable path,” Helms said.
In the meantime, a bus will take residents from Maggie Trejo Supercenter, located next to the closed Montelongo Pool, to Maxey Pool for free, three times a week.
Visit the City of Lubbock’s website for more information.