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CARLA SLAVEY CJ Staff Writer
It’ s not the light playing tricks. SomerSplash Water Park is more vivid than it has been in the past few years.
That’ s thanks to the work that’ s gone into making the park dazzle in the sunlight. With a brand-new coat of paint, gel coating and other renovations, SomerSplash has had a $ 300,000 face lift.“ We’ re in the process of refurbishing our slides here at the park,” said SomerSplash Director Stephen Sims.“ It’ s going to have an all-new look to it. It’ s going to be brighter. … It makes a big difference. Everybody that drives past the park has noticed it and has asked what have we done, so it was definitely time.”
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Between the fresh paint and last year’ s remodel of the Lazy River’ s lining, Sims said the park has had close to $ 1 million in updates over two years, Sims said.
And that’ s just to the water park side of SomerSplash. The park is also attracting more visitors each year to its winter festivities – the skating rink and the holiday decorations that make up Tiki’ s Winter Wonderland.
Sims said that many people don’ t yet realize that the skating rink is open during the winter.
“ If they do( know), they think it’ s the synthetic flooring instead of real ice,” he said.“ We’ ve got 4,100 square feet of real ice. We have ice skates here that you can use. It’ s included into the
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admission price.” This past season, the rink opened on December 1, and stayed busy on through February 15.
That’ s impressive, considering Pulaski winters are notoriously fickle when it comes to the weather. One day, temperatures could be in the 30s. The next day they might climb into the 60s.
Sims said that the rink is available no matter what the outdoor temperatures might be, thanks to having a refrigeration system built into the rink’ s setup.
That ensures that the ice remains frozen even if the day isn’ t chilly.
In cases where the weather turns into a winter hazard, such as January’ s winter ice and snow storm, the rink is ready to go fairly quickly, Sims explained.
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“ We’ ve got a small Zamboni, so we’ ll just take it and grade off the ice and the snow and everything, and it’ ll be ready to go. We just smooth it over.”
Tiki’ s Winter Wonderland has helped to extend SomerSplash’ s season past the traditional summer months. Sims said the ice rink has started to become so popular, the park is not only offering winter season passes, it is offering combined passes for both the winter and summer attractions.
The water park side of SomerSplash traditionally opens on Memorial Day weekend, and stays open till Labor Day weekend.
Guests have their pick of six different slides, including the speed slide, where those brave enough can plummet down a 50- foot tall drop.
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