Monterey Splash Pad Project Still In Preliminary Phases

Monterey residents will have to wait a little longer for construction to begin on a new splash pad.

Putnam County Parks and Recreation Director John Albertson said the project continues to move through the preliminary phases.

“We’re hoping to ramp that up within the next month to two months and try to get it completed as fast as we can,” Albertson said. “I feel comfortable with where we are. Of course, we would always love to be farther ahead of where we are, but we’re not, unfortunately.”

The county hoped to begin construction after the new fiscal year began on July 1. Albertson said several factors caused the project to hit a delay.

“We had to stop and wait until our fiscal budget started over new on July 1st, which of course, hopefully our budget will be passed within the month,” Albertson said. “We’ll have that in place and hopefully be able to go from there. We’ve actually-on our end and through our department-have had some events going on that we’ve been managing. We’ve had to put our focus on coordinating some of those events and then now we’ll be able to put our focus solely on doing projects.”

Albertson said the 1,000 square foot attraction will include a seating area and 16 different water nozzles.

“It’s something that you see in a lot of parks now, and there’s a lot of different features that we can build on and add on as we go,” Albertson said. “That’s kind of the thought process with this. We’ll start out with the basic system and then we’ll be able to build upon it for years to come.”

A local health department grant will be funding the project.