Public wades through aquatic center concepts

Members of Wisconsin firm hired by Bentonville hears feedback

BENTONVILLE — The Melvin Ford Aquatic Center plan could include features unique to the area, officials said Thursday.

“The important thing here was let’s not duplicate what you can find in closeby communities. Let’s do something unique,” said Doug Whiteaker, principal of Water Technology.

The city hired the Wisconsin firm to create a plan to renovate and add to the city’s outdoor aquatic center.

Water Technology representatives met with different

users a few weeks ago to find out what they would like to see at the center. Those ideas were on display at the Community Center on Thursday for a drop-in session where the public could review and provide feedback.

The center at 2000 N.E. Memorial Park Square is 26 years old and features a 50-meter lap pool, 13-footdeep diving well and 1-footdeep wading pool. It draws about 40,000 swimmers annually, according to recreation officials.

Six boards displayed the overall concept as well as specific areas with ideas of what they could include. The overview showed an addition to the facility’s southeast corner with two areas with recreational features, including two unique water slides.

One would be enclosed with LED panels giving users a different experience each ride down. The other was a standing water slide where riders remain standing as they slide down a narrow shoot with hand railings on each side.

“It’s like a cross between snow skiing and skateboarding,” Whiteaker said. He’s ridden one in Germany. There aren’t any in the United States yet, but they’re coming, he said.

It was the slides that caught the attention of the three Howe siblings — two who are 11 years old and another 13 — who came to the meeting so two of them could meet their Boy Scout requirement of attending a public meeting.

None of them had heard of a standing water slide before.

“I want to do that,” Makayla Howe said with excitement when asked what she thought hearing about it.

The slides emptied into a pool with a lazy river and vortex, or also known as a whirlpool, according to the concept boards. There was another leisure pool just north where a shaded water playground was the central feature.

The competition pool and diving well to the northwest would receive some modifications and renovation so it could be used for another 30 years, officials said.

A new entrance was shown in between the competition and recreational pools where people could enter to either part of the facility.

The recreational pools would also allow the center to remain open to the public while competitive meets were held, said David Wright, parks and recreation director.

Wright said the plan should be completed within the next 60 days. The plan will need to be ranked in priority to other projects within the Parks and Recreation system, he said.

“What we’ll have is all the information to make that decision,” he said, adding there’s also the possibility the plan could be implemented in phases.

The completed plan will include cost estimates.