UltraCOOL ADA50 Manual do Utilizador descarregar pdf (Página 23)

October 2010 AMUSEMENT TODAY 23

BAYTOWN

Continued from page 22

improvements to the park that

we hadn’t intended to do.”

The Flowrider that both

Johnson and Mayor Stephen H.

DonCarlos wanted came from

Aquatic Development Group

in Cohoes, N.Y., but many of

the other pieces came from

WhiteWater West in Richmond,

British Columbia.

Those attractions include a

SpaceBowl, the four-lane mat-

racer, Poolsider and AquaTube

Body Slides, Inner-Tube Slide

and an AquaPlay AP300 with

a tipping bucket and Aqua-

Play AP250, according to Trish

Tondowsy, sales coordinator at

WhiteWater West.

Hatchell estimated that

installed, the Flowrider cost

about $750,000 to $1 million of

the $10.5 million budget, while

the mechanicals for the pools

cost $2-$3 million.

Located at the city’s Wayne

Gray Sports Complex, Pirates

Bay has 6.3 developed acres

and 19,700 square feet of water

surface area, said John Fielder,

project manager from Kimley-

Horn.

While municipalities re-

placing older pools with water-

parks is nothing new, “What’s

unusual about it is the size of

it,” Hatchell said.

Baytown is a city with a

population in excess of 73,000

in the Houston metropolitan

area.

“We’ve been doing other

family aquatic centers and

mini-water parks for munici-

palities in the $3-$6 million

range, but what was unique

about Baytown was that they

decided they wanted to do a

bigger facility. The last time a

project was done like this in

Texas was NRH2O at North

Richland Hills.”

NRH2O, located in a sub-

urb of Fort Worth with a popu-

lation of 55,635 in 2000, draws

more than 250,000 annually in

attendance, Hatchell said.

“That’s pretty darn good

for a municipality,” Hatchell

said.

Although the idea of the

waterpark was to provide rec-

reation for area residents, John-

son does not mind being a bit

of a destination.

“We want people to come

into town,” he said. “We want

something for our citizens,

something our citizens can

have and be proud of. If we

bring people from out of town

and they stay at a hotel and eat

at a restaurant and shop, it’s a

good thing.

“We’re 30 minutes from

downtown Houston,” he add-

ed. “We’re kind of the only mu-

nicipality that has a waterpark

in the area, especially on the

east side of Houston.”

Schlitterbahn Waterpark

in New Braunfels, Texas, is 200

miles west of Baytown, while

Splash Town in Spring, Texas,

is about half an hour north of

Houston.

“Those are fun places to go

to,” Johnson said. “I’ve been to

them and have a blast. I think

we’ve hit a niche that’s perfect

for our part of town.”

In order to be a destina-

tion, Hatchell said, a waterpark

needs a lazy river in excess of

300 feet — the one at Pirates Bay

is 671 feet long — in addition to

a variety of slides that will at-

tract all age groups, from little

children to teens and adults.

“One of the neat things

we did in Baytown that re-

ally helped them was the bowl

slide, and they have a Flowrid-

er,” Hatchell said.

But more attendance will

bring the need for more park-

ing to the existing 380 spaces

– in late summer, workers were

pouring concrete for an addi-

tional 35.

Located in the Wayne Gray

Sports Complex in Baytown,

people visit the site not only for

the waterpark but also to play

sports on a variety of elds and

courts on 60 acres. But Pirates

Bay has room to grow, Johnson

said.

Admission is $15 for visi-

tors taller than 48 inches and

$12 for visitors under, because

of a height requirement on

some of the attractions, John-

son said.

With the arrival of Labor

Day, Pirates Bay has gone to

its off-season hours of 11 a.m.

to 7 p.m. weekends, which will

be sustained through October.

Off-season hours will pick up

again in March.

“We’re open seven days a

week from the time school gets

out until the time school gets

back in,” Szymanski said.

AT PHOTOS / GARY SLADE

Clockwise from top left: Baytown, Texas is home to Pirate's Bay Water Park; the AquaPlay structure features waterplay;

pools, a lazy river and thrilling slides await guests; lazy river guests encounter numerous themed water elements along

the way; body slides oer more action as does a ride on the park's ultra-popular Flowrider.

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