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Euless water park opens in time for Memorial Day
Posted Saturday, May. 18 , 2013
Euless residents will soon have a splashy new toy.
The Euless Family life Center Aquatic Park is intended to be a reasonably priced place where residents
can swim, slide and slosh until their skin prunes .
"This is an aquatics facility to serve our citizens," Deputy City Manager Loretta Getchell said . "It is not
intended to compete with the commercial water parks in the area."
At its grand opening at 10 a.m . May 25 , the 1.5 -acre attraction at 300 W . Midway Drive will greet guests
with a 325,000 -gallon pool, a shallow-water play -and-leisure area , a lazy river around a landscaped
island and a multilevel play structure with small slides and all manner of things that squirt, sprinkle and
dump water on folks.
The more adventurous types will find a 29-foot slide tower with a 171 -foot flume and a 176-foot tube
slide that dump riders into the pool. A third large slide has a separate splashdown area .
There are also water-basketball and aerobics areas and a challenging lily pad crossing.
Nowhere in the complex , which started construction in October, is the water deeper than 31/2 feet,
Parks Director Ray McDonald said.
"Before , it was just a pool that had been there since the 1950s," McDonald said . "It had been renovated
sometime in the mid-to late '80s . It was about 80 by 40 feet . The shell of the pool was still good. We
shallowed up the deep end, and it's still part of the facility ."
That's part of how the city saved a few million dollars over original estimates, Getchell said .
"Our initial estimates were that it would cost about $11 million to bu i ld ," she said . "We did it for $7 .5
million without cert ificates of obligation, revenue bonds or general obligation bonds -no debt
whatsoever ."
The city paid for the water park in cash, mostly with money generated by fees from car rental
companies, primarily at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Getchell sa id.
A 60,000-gallon indoor pool scheduled to open in November is included in the $7 .5 million price ,
Getchell sa id.
"That is a large component of what changed ," she said. "We 're using a design we saw in Fort Bend,
where they used a nontraditional space."
The 8,000-square-foot indoor pool facility will have an oblong current channel for rehabilitation and
resistance exerc ise and a few spray features and a slide designed to entertain younger users . It is
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designed to use wind during the summer so there's no need for air conditioning and the chlorine smell
isn 't overpowering, Getchell said .
The pool itself will be right at 25 meters long and will include swim lanes, McDonald said .
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives .
IF YOU GO
• Euless Aquatics Center, 300 W. Midway Drive (Euless Family Life Center)
• The grand opening is at 10 a.m . May 25 . It will remain open Memorial Day weekend (through May 27)
and then open daily June 1.
• Hours, costs: 817-685-1666
Terry Evans, 817-390-7620
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EULESS FAMILYUFE AQUATICS PARK TRECITY O ·ULESS
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Opening of Euless Aquatic Park postponed
Posted Friday, May. 24 , 2013
While the Euless Aquatic Park won't open Memorial Day weekend, plenty of other water parks in
Northeast Tarrant County will.
Bedford
• Bedford Splash Aquatic Center, 2817 R.D . Hurt Parkway (Bedford Boys Ranch)
• Opened Friday for season-pass holders and then daily Saturday.
• Hours, costs: bedfordsplash.com
Hurst
• Chisholm Aquatics Center, 2200 Norwood Drive
• Central Aquatics Center, 715 Mary Drive
• Both facilities will be open Memorial Day weekend, then daily starting June 1.
• Hours, costs : ci.hurst.tx.us (click on "Residents," then "Recreation ")
Keller
• The Keller Pointe , 405 Rufe Snow Drive
• The outdoor pool and water park opens Memorial Day weekend , then daily starting June 1.
• Hours, costs : cityofkeller.com (click on "Visit & Play," then "The Keller Pointe ")
North Richland Hills
• NRH20 , 9001 Boulevard 26
• Opened May 18
• Hours, costs : nrh2o .com
The Euless Family Life Center Aquatic Park will not open Memorial Day weekend as planned .
Instead, the city will open its two other pools a week ahead of schedule with free admission . South
Euless Pool, 600 S. Main St., next to South Euless Elementary School, and Wilshire Pool, 315 Sierra Drive
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in Wilshire Park, will be open from 11 a.m . to 8 p.m . Saturday, noon to 7 p .m . Sunday and 11 a.m . to 8
p.m. Monday .
Deputy City Manager Loretta Getchell said the contractor, Progressive Commercial Aquatics, "simply ran
out of time and couldn't get all the features installed and tested in time for this weekend. We really
wanted to open Memorial Day weekend and hate that we'll miss it, but it will be worth the wait."
Getchell wasn't sure what caused the delay .
But city spokeswoman Betsy Deck said next weekend might be even more appropriate for the grand
open i ng .
"Thursday is the last day of school ," she said. "Kids will be out of school on Friday and that's the day it
will open , so they'll have lots of time to enjoy it."
Terry Evans, 817-390 -7620 Twitter: @fwstevans