- April 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Since Palm Coast's $5 million splash pad at the James F. Holland Memorial Park opened with great fanfare last May, it's been beset by faults with the pad surface. Multiple closures followed in the months after its opening. The splash pad closed for the season last fall and remains closed, while the city has struggled to get the team responsible for its design and construction to fix the issue, city staff members said at a City Council workshop April 12.
"Our residents and families, kids, have no use of this facility while all of this is going on. That's a big problem for me."
— DAVID ALFIN, Palm Coast mayor
Repairs are expected to cost about $600,000. Palm Coast is preparing for the possibility of suing designers S&ME, builders BBI Construction Management and subcontractor No Fault. The city will also have an engineer assess the pad to see if it's fixable. If it's not, the city will consider options for replacing it with something else.
"Somebody is going to have to be responsible for this," City Councilman Eddie Branquinho said at a City Council workshop April 12. "And if we allow the city to be responsible for something that we didn't do, shame on us."
He suggested the city pay the $600,000 to fix the problem, "and then sue the heck out of these people that don't give a darn about our kids, and get that money back."
The city has already hired a law firm, Gray Robinson P.A., to prepare for potential litigation.
"We've got an unacceptable failure, there's no question over that," attorney Trevor Arnold told the council at the workshop.
The city tried to bring the designer, contractor and subcontractor together to seek a resolution, but hasn't come to one, he said.
Mayor David Alfin asked about the possibility of developing the facility in a "different direction," so that it would be usable to the public sooner.
"Our residents and families, kids, have no use of this facility while all of this is going on. That's a big problem for me. Huge," Alfin said. "If we build a different park that we know will serve the public and not require the attention and the potential future problems this one has and will have in the future, does that reduce the leverage we have in our legal standing going forward?"
It could impact the city's case, Arnold said — unless the city gets an opinion from an outside engineer stating that it can't be fixed properly. That hasn't happened.
Palm Coast's 10,000-plus-square-foot splash pad at Holland Park opened in mid-May 2021. Two months later, the pad's rubber surface was cracking so badly that it was a trip hazard and loose rubber was collecting in the pad's filter, and the city had to close part of it.
City staff then closed the whole pad for the season in October, hoping that repairs to the delaminated pad surface would be done by the time it was a due to reopen in spring 2022.
The city tried on March 25 to communicate with the design team, contractor and subcontractor, seeking options for a resurfacing, but didn't come to an agreement, even after threatening legal action, Arnold said.
Arnold suggested the city attempt mediation but prepare for a suit, and hire a third-party design firm to determine how to fix the problem.
"My concern is, will this thing ever be fixed right?" Councilman Ed Danko said. "Is there some type of other facility we could put in there that would accomplish the same thing — which is, basically, giving the children a place to play and enjoy themselves in the summer?" He asked about the possibility of some other amenity with fountains.
Alfin suggested having city staff draft options in case the splash pad isn't fixable.
The city will seek to open at least a portion of the splash pad for the public, if feasible, while preparing for a lawsuit and looking at other potential uses of the space.
Councilman John Fanelli said he'd spent many days at the splash pad last summer with his children, and now, every time the family drives past it, "They look at it go, 'Ohhh, it's still not open.'"
"I'm sure that my family is not the only family that is driving by and seeing that," Fanelli said. "I think we need to seek a resolution quick. I don't think it should cost the taxpayers a dollar. We've already paid for it."
