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74 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, March 12, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 11, 2005 Medford Public Works Department employees were among the first to test out Medford�s first �zero-depth water feature� at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park, a new place for kids to cool off in the summer. Two more spray parks are planned. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Spray park makes a splash Summer fun on tap as engineers fine-tune $203,000 contraption at city park By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune While most people test new things on a dry run, the parks department had a wet run Thursday. Medford Parks and Recreation staff tried out the new spray park at Fichtner-Mainwaring Park on Stewart Avenue Thursday, and it made a splash. The $203,000 "zero-depth water feature" is scheduled to open to the public May 21. A "Have a nice spray" sign greets visitors, who just need to press on the flower to start the water spraying. A whale on top of a tall post pops up if enough hands or feet plug surrounding groundspouts. And there’s plenty of spraying water for children to run through on hot summer days. Sue McKenna, parks supervisor, said water for the spray park goes through the same chlorination and filtration system as a swimming pool, so the water is just like pool water — safe for accidental ingestion. Advertisement Interactive water features are becoming popular, said McKenna, because they don’t run into some of the safety and high-maintenance issues of swimming pools. Designer Tom Karst of Vak Pak Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., explained the details of running the electrical system to staff, and discussed the fine-tuning of some spray features. Vak Pak builds pools, spas and fountains in parks, zoos and neighborhoods around the country. Adroit Construction of Ashland put in the concrete pad and coordinated the plumbing and electrical installation, according to Craig Funsten, vice president of Adroit. Merlin McDaniel, parks design and construction engineer, said the feature cost $190,000 and the fencing around it cost $13,000. The money came from parks system development charges. McDaniel said this is Medford’s first spray park, but he hopes more will be built in the next couple of years. "We’ve got two more parks that have these in the parks master plan," he said. Requests for funding the Lone Pine park and the Lewis Street park water features are part of the parks department’s budget request for the 2005-07 budget to be approved by summer. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s