Splash pad prepares to open in Starkville

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Because of sanitation guidelines and social distancing, pools all over Mississippi will remain closed for the rest of the summer.

But, those who live in Starkville will be getting the chance to cool down while the temperatures rise. But, not everyone will be getting that opportunity just yet.

Mayor Lynn Spruill announced that in addition to parks being open, the splash pad would be opening up next week.

“The outdoor facilities, the parks, and the outdoor parks are going to be open and are open,” said Mayor Spruill. “This is going to be an at your own risk and recognition by the parents and the adults that these issues that they are going to have to monitor.”

“I mean all it is is just water coming out of the ground but it remains at your own risk in the sense that we’re not going to be sanitizing because we can’t properly sanitize a water park in the sense the way you get the water out of the ground you have to hit a button,” said Spruill.

While the city of Starkville planned to open its splash pad, Columbus Recreation Department director Greg Lewis said Columbus wasn’t quite ready to do so yet.

“At the present time, I don’t think it is going to opening anytime soon because on our splash pad, they are heavily used and they are small splash pads, which means it’s pretty impossible to keep a six feet social distance for the children trying to run and have fun so the best thing that we can do now for the safety of our citizens is to not open it up at the present time,” said Lewis.

Lewis’s biggest concern was social distancing and the number of people that could participate in a gathering.

In the end, both Spruill and Lewis hoped to get things back to normal.

“Just that sense of normalcy and be outside because being outside is, you know everybody needs sunshine and you need to be able to play and you need to be able to have a summer,” said Spruill.

“Well we know that we need to get back to our new normal and I would love to see that happen and would love to see things go back to things being close to normal now but with the COVID-19 virus we are uncertain, we are in uncertain times and we don’t know what’s going on until we can get further information and the only thing we can do is ask our citizens to stay safe and utilize the social distancing until we can get together again,” said Lewis.

In Columbus, all of the summer programs and splash pads are suspended indefinitely, but we will keep you updated on when those will be back and running.