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The Eugene Gay Splash Park, to be located at Community Park, has been a community project. 

Recently, several current and former city staff members spoke about its development status. 

In 2022, the City of Winchester budgeted $250,000 toward the project to match public and private donations, with $100,000 being allocated by the Clark County Fiscal Court.

Further financial action soon took place as well. 

“The bids came in [at]…a little less than $1.7 million…so we used some financing options to get the project paid for,” said City Manager Bruce Manley, confirming that the city has paid for all but $350,000 worth of the project with the county and Land Water Construction Fund Grant accounting for other. 

Currently, the project continues to progress. 

“Right now, they’re painting the inside. They just picked the colors…so they’re currently priming the inside,” said Jesse McCoy, an engineering tech and hybrid inspector with the City of Winchester. “They probably got seventy percent of the building concrete in.” 

McCoy also noted that a variety of other processes continued taking place, related to electrical work, plumbing, roofing, and more. 

“I look for them to move along and be done pretty quickly,” he said. 

Mike Flynn, former City Manager, expressed that the project – when first developed – took place in multiple phases with planning having occurred during the course of several years. 

However, as is common in many construction processes, not all went smoothly. 

“Originally, it was thought that they were just going to purchase the water from WMU. Well, it was determined that the cost from that was exorbitant to pay for,” he said. “They had to back up, put in a [filtered] recirculating system…reusing the water that’s not evaporated and lost through the normal operations.” 

Such an operation, Flynn concluded, drove up costs for the project. 

“There’s certain things that have been bumps in the road that you have to overcome,” he said. “Standing back and looking at it from a picture perspective, it looks good and it’s not hard to do. When you’re in the middle of it and you’re designing it and doing the right things that need to be done to construct it, it’s very difficult to do those things.” 

HWC Enterprises, Inc., a London construction firm, continues to work on the contracting. 

Although inclement weather might have previously created complications, staff is excited for the near future. 

“It’s going to be done before winter, and I expect…there’s going to be plenty of hot days…that kids are going to be out there splashing,” Manley added. 

While community involvement – including local donations – continues to be welcome, the city looks to give back as well. 

“We want [others] to know they’ve been heard. That’s why we’re pushing now to try to get done,” Flynn added. 

“[Others] start seeing things we have, and hopefully that generates more to help our park system in general, and draw more activity to the community itself,” McCoy added.