Palm Coast’s much-vaunted $5.1 million splash pad at Holland Park hadn’t yet opened less than a year ago before it began curdling into a boondoggle.
It opened for barely a few weeks before failing twice, closing the second time in July and soon after closing for good. The failure is causing the city to threaten a lawsuit against the contractor and designer of the splash pad and consider scraping off the whole thing and replacing it with more traditional, less breakdown-prone amenities.
For users of Holland Park, the city’s most popular amenity by far, and for city government, this is only the latest in a long history of setbacks dating back to February 2015, when Holland Park’s 27 acres closed for what was to be just 15 months for $4.3 million top-to-bottom renovations, but stayed closed for twice that long. The contractor on the job failed then, in the city’s view, and was fired before city crews completed the job. That was only the first phase of renovations. Splash pad construction was Phase Two, a $6 million job that, between it and Covid, again closed the park for weeks and months at a time. (The balance between the cost of the splash pad and the rest went to new bocce ball courts and other improvements unrelated to the pad.)
Since the splash pad was closed off last summer, a thick greenish tarp-like screen wraps around the fence around its 10,500 square feet–a huge portion of the park running through its center, deadening its usually vibrant community. The splash pad may need need $600,000 in repairs, according to the contractor, a figure as fluid as the pad has been dry.
Even before the splash park opened in May 2021, there were several areas of concern in water quality and color fading of the surface layer. The design team, S&ME, met with the contractor, BBI Construction management, and a BBI subcontractor called, ironically, No Fault, a Baton Rouge, La.-based company that specializes in playground and splash pad construction. No Fault boasts of installing 15 million square feet of “safety surface” in playgrounds in seven countries since 1974. Contractors told the city that “these concerns were a part of a break in process,” according to Deputy City Manager Lauren Johnston, describing the concerns as “an aesthetic issue only” that would be resolved with more usage of the splash pad. That proved not to be the case.
But BBI’s water-quality tests all passed inspection. So the splash pad opened. (See: “At Holland Park, Lush $5.1 Million Splash Pad Erupts Amid Cheers for Latest Free-Access Amenity.”) That June, the splash pad closed for several days because of what was attributed to electrical issues. The next month, it closed again as surface layers started failing: rubber “buffing” material was found in the drainage system. It has been closed since. (Theoretically, it was to close for the season in October.) The city worked fruitlessly with the contractor and subcontractors to resolve issues. There was finger-pointing and blame-placing, including on supply-chain issues, a now go-to defense in many projects that seem to derail. Meanwhile, tests pointed to the extent of the failure. After the rubbery surface was tested, “the product had a strong, unrecognizable chemical smell and a premature aging was noted in the samples,” Johnston said. The subcontractor told the city that it had followed manufacturers’ instructions–and again blamed supply chain issues. Johnston later said the filtration system was also damaged, and that “as part of this whole process, everything would need to be re evaluated.”
That “everything” translates to–among other things–125,600 feet (or 23 miles) of pipes, 114 spray nozzles, 8,800 pounds of filtering substance, and 2,500 linear feet of expansion foam, according to the stat sheet the city distributed when the park opened last year.
At that point–in December–the city started raising legal questions. Contracting issues of this sort are not part of the city’s retainer with its house attorneys, Garganese, Weiss, D’Agresta & Salzman. So they went the procurement route and retained Trevor Arnold of Gray Robinson, a statewide law firm. Arnold was immediately blunt with the council: “We’ve got a unacceptable failure. There’s no question over that.”
“We need to get someone to make sure that we fix it right,” Robinson continued. “And right now we only have someone saying, ‘this may work but someone else needs to take responsibility for the approach.’ So we need to bring someone in that confirms it will be fixed, right? So we’re not facing this problem again.”
That raised the obvious question, posed by Mayor David Alfin: why would another company be willing to take on the responsibility for a project that failed? “Is there such an expert out there willing to accept the responsibilities of potential liabilities for another failure?” the mayor asked.
The “trepidations” are understandable, Robinsons said, but with some latitude, there would be viable firms willing to take on the project. Alfin then raised another possibility: rebuilding Holland Park and getting rid of the splash pad, because for now, the closed off segments of the park, which are not small, means it’s of no use to residents and children. “That’s a big problem for me. Huge,” Alfin said. “If I remake the park, if I build a different park that we know will serve the public and not require the attention and the potential future problems that this one has and will have in the future, does that reduce the leverage we have in our legal standing going forward?”
The attorney’s answer was double-edged, because one of the fingers he referred to would point back at the city: “I think it has a potential impact on the claim and may create some questions over whether this was a viable design concept in the first place, and may increase the amount of fingerpointing that occurs amongst the players,” Robinson said. “But I don’t think that presents any legal argument that we wouldn’t have a valid claim and valid damages just because we had to go a different direction, given this failure.” Put another way: if the city were to do away with the splash pad, the repair costs of the splash pad would become abstract, and more difficult to recover in litigation, as opposed to the costs of actual repairs to the splash pad.
Council member Ed Danko, too, worried about the splash pad getting repaired only to fail again in the future. But the attorney said he “wouldn’t want to prematurely pivot without some understanding that it could impact the claim”–at least not until a contractor tells the city that repairs are not worth the cost.
To Alfin, the response was somewhere between a rock and a hard place, which Danko echoed. “My concern is, will this thing ever be fixed right? And I’d hate to see us go down that path.”
Council member Eddie Branquinho spoke as if to indemnify the city. “Since the inception of this project the city did nothing wrong, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. But the backstory is more complicated: the initial cost BBI submitted for the splash pad was $7 million. It was the city that insisted on cutting costs, bringing the final bill down to $5.1 million, a huge cut that, in potential litigation ahead, may give the contractor and subcontractors an opening to argue that they alone were not responsible either for potential corner-cutting or for the eventual failures.
What, precisely, got cut for the most part is not clear. But knowingly or not, it was Robinson himself who gave an example of the lower quality approach taken during construction: “There’s different ways to do the binders,” he said, “and one of the things that has been identified is, there’s different methods to do the binding. The inferior approach was selected here, and there’s a question over whether that was lack of direction from the design team or a decision by the contractor, and that’s why there’s different scenarios. So I think there are methods that this could be done properly and should have been done properly initially. There’s other similar parts, and we think we know why it failed. So this isn’t some mystery that it’ll never be fixed right. I think there just needs to be more attention, there needs to be proper direction and proper execution.”
But Robinson, shielding the city, said all the finger-pointing is between the contractor and the designer–not the city. ” I have not seen or had anyone identify anything that is the responsibility of the city,” he said. “We’re not in a situation where it appears to be at this early stage 100 percent design or 100 percent construction.”
Even at the lower cost, Branquinho himself had opposed the plan, along with then-Council ember Jack Howell when the council voted on it in 2019. Branquinho back then considered it too expensive, and that the city had other, more pressing obligations, such as repairs to its public works facility. Howell, for his part in 2019, drew on his previous experience with a splash pad in Jacksonville and said presciently that “the filtration system was a nightmare to deal with.” (Howell is no longer on the council.) Today, Branquinho described the splash pad issue an “emergency.” He favored immediate repairs then suing “the heck out of” those responsible for the failure.
Council members have few options but litigation and felt caught “between a rock and a hard place,” in Alfin’s words. They are looking at ways to recoup some loss while also preventing the Howell-predicted “nightmare,” though it’s already there.
“We’re stuck, but we’re not seeking an alternative, which might not include the part of the park which is the corrosive effect of the water and the equipment involved,” Alfin said. “I don’t know the answer. I think that would be a staff assignment to bring back alternatives that the community would favor, because at the end of the day, it’s what’s going to be best for the residents and the families and the kids and I don’t know what that is yet. I assume there are many, many, many different examples around the world that we could kind of look at and find out what might be a potential alternative while your cycle is going on.” By “cycle,” Alfin was referring to legal maneuvers ahead. “Because I know you can’t define an end game. You had mentioned 30 days, 60 days, perhaps 90 days, and my experience has been that those things can tend to trail on even longer.”
Any legal maneuvering with even a 90-day horizon is likely, considerably off the mark. The negotiations Robinson described today are not pointing to any kind of encouraging, fast-track resolution. To the contrary.
“There’s been a lot of discussion with the original design and construction team. There was an effort to try to bring them together to see if it could be resolved short of escalation,” Robinson said. “While there was some interest amongst the players, we could not get unified interest.” Even BBI Construction Management, the chief contractor on the project, showed willingness to cooperate but “caveated all their communications with the fact that they will not take design responsibility.”
The designer of record, S&ME, has not been willing to participate in repairs. That means the city needs to bring in a new designer, he said.
Robinson and the administration laid out three options: an amicable resolution was one. That’s proved a dead end, at least for now. Option two is a partial resolution: going the amicable resolution route with those parties willing to work with the city, such as BBI. But even that is problematic, because the issue, Robinson said, is going to be a combination of causes between BBI and the designer. “So there’s some risk in doing a full resolution with one party before discovery and before we’ve confirmed the party’s positions, because then we’ll be at risk as to what we could ultimately recover against the other party,” he said.
That leaves option three: Legal “escalation,” with a lawsuit as the ultimate weapon. That process has started. “We have already drafted proposed letters, in fact at the March 25 meeting, those were hand-delivered to the project participants,” he said. Those documents are part of the legally required steps under law before a lawsuit is filed, giving the parties a chance to resolve the issue, including with mediation. The parties would have 45 days to mediate and possibly reach a resolution, foregoing the need for a resolution. “But short of that, I think we need to proceed with a lawsuit,” Robinson said.
Those receiving the letters, and would thereby be the opposing parties in the lawsuit, would be BBI, the main subcontractor responsible for the material in the splash pad at the hearty of the issue, No Fault, and S&ME, the designer of record.
Concurrently, Robinson said the city should find an alternate design company to find a way to fix the splash pad, enabling the city to conduct repairs even before the resolution of the dispute with the other parties. “Even on the early side, if things went very quickly, we probably would be looking at mid-July to mid-August, unfortunately,” Robinson said, not clarifying whether that meant completion of the repairs or beginning of the repairs. (Johnston said even setting aside the procurement process for a new design firm, landing the necessary supplies could take eight to 10 weeks. So between procurement, supply delivery and actual construction, it’s almost impossible to project an August re-opening.)
But the council’s direction today pointed to tepid interest in risking expensive repairs to a splash pad they worry is built to fail, except as a strategic maneuver during litigation. The direction to the administration is twofold: continuing on the track of litigation, and exploring ways to reopen the 10,500 square feet of the splash pad at least to safe play, on rubberized surfaces, without running it as a splash pad–and considering alternatives to the $5.1 million amenity for the future. In sum, the splash pad that barely was is not history yet, but its future as a splash pad is in doubt.
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David says
5.1 million dollars for this, City of PC Officials sure throw taxpayers money around when there are more important improvements that the City needs. How about sidewalks, how about street lighting, how about no raises for a new elected Cult GOP mayor who wants a raise and he hasn’t even been at the job a year.
Remember these thieves next time you vote.
Steve Vanne says
Well said sir…
Steve says
Just visited my sister. Your roads overall are in terrible disrepair. Washboard city
Greg says
And getting worse everyday. Money to burn.
Proud American says
Yes agree, City sure doesn’t waste allt of money. So many corrupt people in our city office. Get rid of them all
Frank M Adams says
Is PC a Council- Manager (weak Mayor), or Mayor-Council ( strong Mayor), form of government?
FlaglerLive says
Council-manager.
Jan says
So very sorry to hear this about the splash park. Took my grandchildren there several times. Guess it happened to be working those times. It was fantastic, and they loved it.
Steve says
Just a 5 million dollar oops. No biggie. Let’s just pave it over and put up a swing set or two. Think anyone will notice.
Jimbo99 says
Will always be the reminder of the Holland-era of dysfunctional government. Now the taxpayer is stuck with this mess. I’m on record warning for at least the pump replacement issue over time and the base grounds failing is epic failure within weeks of a grand opening of this. Supposedly we have experts that buy moldy buildings & approve a splash pad.
Marco Polo Park is long gone from a failed theme park, this splash pad was $ 5.1 million of wasted financial resources. The previous construction phase was $ 4.7 million, $ 9.8 million for this park. Someone needs to go to jail for that level of fraud & abuse. And that $ 4.7 million, nothing but headaches with unreliable contractor(s). Several if not all of the Palm Coast Council are the same folks that quadrupled their salaries in a vote. $ 9.8 million for this, how many decades could the City Council have been compensated with that ? Fiscal irresponsibility shouldn’t be spun as accomplishments & rewarded with pay increases, even as cost of living increases. We’re always a recession away from shutting stupid projects like this completely down. And this fiasco happened in the middle of a pandemic. Do not come to taxpayers & increase taxes for incompetent stupidity. This splash pad is your neighbor that put in a kiddie pool during the pandemic in their backyard that the children no longer use.
Derrick Redder says
Boom truth right here folks
Gloria says
So very sad….we were so pleased with Holland park and the splash pad….spent many hours there last summer and were looking forward to
This year ……but alas it will not be….wait till
I have to tell this to the kids
Steve G says
Please go to the town council meeting on 4/19 stop the ridiculous raises!!
Also, show them we will be there in November to see them out!!!!
Damien says
Such a tragic outcome, Sure am glad for $5Million my kid got to play on it once or twice before it failed at least. What an Epic park it briefly was. Hate to throw good money after bad, but we need a competent contractor to come in with all new rubber material and use the proper binder this time and rubber pave over the existing deteriorating material, similar to paving over a pot holed asphalt road. Clean and or repair/ replace the filters and get the water turned back on ASAP this summer while you sue the pants off of the original contractor. Even if encouraged to cut/save costs, that contractor should be responsible as the expert installer and should have not let the city make a catastrophic mistake ordering using inferior binding material. Sounds like there was zero oversight allowing this quagmire.
Flatsflyer says
The fool who first came up with this as a need city amenity needs to be tarred and feather. Could have built an Olympic size pool for under $1 million. The city, county and state could not purchase a bottle of coca cola without screwing it up.
Mischa Gee says
I totally agree. The Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club was a great place when I first moved to Palm Coast 19 years ago. It could have been maintained, and another Olympic sized pool could have been installed at another site for less money than has been wasted on what is basically an elaborate sprinkler system, no swimming involved. And now the only enjoying s courts and changing rooms are falling apart as well.
Mismanagement by city officials keeps occuring and now they want to give themselves raises for the terrible waste of taxpayers dollars.
Chris Goodfellow says
Scrap it. Should never have been built. Lots of lucre for scam artists in this. There is a fine splashpad across the bridge and its called the beach and it doesn’t cost taxpayers an arm and a leg to maintain. Splashpads in Florida? A joke. Serious councillors would never have fallen for this one. Follow the money$5-$6 million???
Land of no turn signals says says
What a great idea or just blacktop over it after all it’s only 5 million dollars of tax payer money.All you ass hats involved deserve a big raise.
Carvalho says
Welcome to Florida – the ripoff capital of the USA.
Celia M Pugliese says
Correct: between this splash pad than then I was in the meeting and spoke my 3 minutes against it and was opposed also by then common sense councilman Jack Howell that spoke of the disasters of the one’s he new in Jacksonville and other places. Cocky wrong desision in our taxpayers pockets. Boondogles like the quiet closure of one road in 2015 Forest Grove without affected residents informed or imput, road than then had 5,400 vehicles traffic daily and redirecting it to Florida Park Drive that already had 8,400 vehicles daily for those road front residents to endure.They should not ever close roads but to the contrary build more roads badly needed in Palm Coast as we stabd in traffic packed like sardines. Furthermore the 1.8 million engineering study for the extension of Matanzas Parkway west of Rt1 into the vacant lands owned by developers and done by city engineering Carl Cote, when yet they never widen Old Kings Road north to take the traffic away from residential roads …you just have it right. An no way to stop them as you send them and e-mail in opposition and more than often they do not even confirm reception. All these waste of hard earned taxes and look at Florida Park Drive right of way heading south corner of PC Parkway along the Island Walk a real muddy mess only seeing in slums.
Proud American says
We love our Florida just the city of Palm coast is corrupt and all need to go! Enough with the political a holes. We are tired of your crap and wasteful spending.
M Spencer says
Loved the splash park. Always packed. Gave the kids something to do in this town
Anthony J czerepka says
What I’m I missing!!! On any government job, especially a job of this size there is a bond and insurance policy. The pad FAILED! where is the bond or the insurance policy. Or did the city do this without protection. If they did they need to fix it. Sure it cost 5M and sure the request was made to reduce cost. Anyone with a half a brain knows you cut some of the items, not the quality of work. In todays world cutting quality is not the way to go. Lawyers will eat you up. Fix the park there is nothing for kids to do in Palm coast which is the reason this was built. Yes I was one of the lucky ones that took my granddaughter there for a day and she enjoyed it al lot. FIX IT and clean the contractors clock.
Skibum says
I completely agree. My first thought also was about the required bond or insurance from the contractor who did the shoddy work that ended in the failure of the splash pad. My opinion is that rather than demolish the whole thing, the city should continue with the legal action already started and hold those companies financially responsible, whatever it costs the builder, to fix the pad so the kids can once again enjoy it. There are many well constructed splash pads in many cities that were built right and have been in operation for a long time, so whatever was not done properly with ours should be rectified by those who built it, at their cost, not by the city taxpayer.
Mary Kay Hayward says
AGREED!! There is ALWAYS a bond on something of this magnitude. The delamination with the rock wall was repaired. Why can’t this be repaired/reworked? The Sun Splash Park in Daytona has been operating for years without rubber problems, and that’s directly on the ocean. How about some initiative from our City Manager to investigate what enlightenment our Daytona neighbors may have to offer? How have they managed to maintain good repair? When costs are cut, it is never just one item, ever. So dig in lawyers, go after what ever mean necessary. What a terrible shame to mow it over and throw the whole thing out. When I took my grandkids there, it was magical (truly) to see kids of all “makes and models” coming together with a game of tag through the water features. Awww, to be young and have a fantastical place to go where even the nasty, angry adults can’t help but smile. Too much money? Over-the-top features? Sure. But it’s done; money’s been spent; earn what you say your worth, council, and fix it.
Percy's mother says
Crooks and frauds. I’m assuming money was siphoned off too.
No worries about the present members of the city council (Danko, Klufus, Fanelli) and the mayor who hasn’t even been in the job a full year yet. They’re toast in Palm Coast. They have ALL lost the confidence and RESPECT of the people of Palm Coast. Unfortunately we all have to put up with them until their respective terms run out.
Hopefully one or all will resign before their terms are up a la Victor Barbosa. We can only hope they will.
Rick Caskey says
Sorry to hear the splashpad has problems that required it to be closed. My imagination has these problems ranging from a host of problems ranging from delamination of the rubberized surfaces with sharp edges that will shred childrens feet to the water jets being clogged or perhaps slime that has turned the deck into a slippery mess. My point being is this article could be improved by identifying why the splashpad is closed. You might be surprised at how much expertise there within our community to solve problems once they are identified.
James says
What I’d like to know is what’s that strange, waxy, whitish blue-green semi-transparent goop that I see in the swale/ditch in front of the park… just beyond the fence… near the basketball courts. Every time I pass there I’m tempted to stop and take a closer look… ya know, to see if its solid… then I think of that movie. Ya know… the blob… and I just kinda move on.
Funny, now that I think about it, I really never seem to notice that many people in the park then either… hum.
Eileen says
We have a condo in Palm Coast. My grandchildren were looking forward to using the splash pad. We live full time in Ewing township New Jersey. We have 2 splash pads at our community pools. Never had a problem but we don’t have a rubber pad either. Just old fashion sand paint. Maybe you should check ours out.
Montecristo says
Everyone is missing the core issue and root problem.
City Staff get rewarded for their incompetence.
The NEW City Manager does nothing, never a comment, never a discussion of what to do or who gets axed for doing a bad job.
Again like I said you get rewarded and promoted to assistant City Manager even after you directed the department that mismanaged the construction of the splash pad.
When will we have a Mayor and City Council with balls enough to start holding Staff responsible?????
Look at the another debacle like the trash contract. The City Manager was in charge. Through her incompetence we are paying 47% more with no end in site. Not to mention reduction in service.
I can go on and on but I’m exhausted form writing this malarkey.
Be woke my City Manager and Assistant City Manager you both have already started on the wrong foot!
Hold your Staff responsible to do their jobs or resign….
Justadad says
First, My kids love the Splash Pad at Holland Park. Put yourselves in a kids mind and think of the joy this must bring to them and the positive impact it has as they run around having the time of their lives. At a time when there seems to be a heightened public concern about pediatric mental health and “save the children” Q fever, wouldn’t an amenity like a splash pad work to serve the benefit of the community? Something doesn’t pass the smell test here. Whenever I brought my kids there, the park appeared to be in great shape. They love it. Aside from maybe a couple of creeps in the perimeter parking lot, a network of surveillance cameras in the playground area and flight schools buzzing overhead the entire time, we are super grateful to have access to the Splash Pad area at Holland Park. Whatever little rips or tears that happen here and there, I’m assuming are normal wear and tear that could be repaired by a properly trained city maintenance crew. Unless, the city maintenance crew is intentionally being diverted from the repairs to allow finger pointing toward the company who originally installed it. Perhaps allowing that portion of the park to fail would save quite a bit of annual maintenance costs that could be reallocated somewhere else… like maybe recent salary increases? If there is anyone reading this on the city maintenance crew, please weigh in. Are the repairs really that bad and can they be solved in house or is this truly a complex, wasteful train wreck that requires an outside contractor?
Palm Coasters have to wear bags over their heads says
The pay increases that Alfin and his cohorts are seeking seem like pocket change compared to the 5.1 million the previous criminal we had as mayor wasted on this worthless toy in a park with her families name on it. Maybe we can trade this for an expensive walking bridge?
Celia M Pugliese says
Sorry but I do not agree with Councilman Branquinho telling us “is not the city’s fault”. It is! in spite that intelligently he opposed this Splash Park along common sense councilman Jack Howell that warned many times Mayor Holland about the failures of the one’s he knew in Jacksonville and other places before, when against opposition of many of us attending the meeting Holland, Flukas the other three and staff decided to waste 6 million on a kids splash pad that now does not work closed for a year and we have to spend in attorney’s without much hope for over half million repairs without much hope, against the designer and builder that will not take risponsability…6 million dollars wasted as we ain’t Disney Parks just a city with a per capita of $ 26,000 to $34,000 a year earnings! https://flaglerlive.com/175190/splash-pad-boondoggle/. They are a bunch of careless officials manipulating and abusing power with our hard earned dollars, taking away our quality of life reason we bought here, then with ridiculous desicions like the closing of a road Forest Grove in 2015 because had pass thru of 5.400 cars and sending them to another road Florida Park Drive that already had 8,400 a day…What did that do to those poor FPD residents still complainning after 7 years? We not only can’t afford road closures but we need “more” roads. Old Kings Road widening needed in old Palm Coast to redirect the traffic out of residential roads like Florida Park Drive is behind schedule for 15 years and ignored but the chief of ingeneering Carl Cote decides to spend 1,8 million in a engineering study for the extension of Matanzas west of Rte 1 into vacant lands owned by developers…excuses are “we got to plan ahead for the future”. Get it? Just like they benefitted by the 22 million new sewer treatment plant in the northwest end of Palm Coast to just benefit the same developers paid by us the current users thru our ever raising rates. Meanwhile here in old Palm Coast the smell of sewer along Florida Park Drive and the drainage problem is not resolved making the FPD right of way on it from Holland Park along and the Island Walk to PC Parkway a real eyesore of muddy poop stinky mess. Ignoring as well the urgent need for a life saving needed sidewalk in Cimmaron. You call and complain and nothing is done! Sudden Growth over Greed approved by city council, mayor and county commission without proper infrastructure in place is destroying this area even for those in gated communities as they are forcing current residents to pay for the growth that in normal risponsible goverment and well planned communities gradually should be paid by developers and newcomers impact fees, not us already here forced to fund or endure having to share with thousands of new housing our decrepit old infrastructure, sewer, water, roads and services. You got it right they want you to save in water now…also in sewer, and drive less so roads can fit more thousands of vehicles and expect less services like traffic enforcement patrol units etc. etc. to accomodate greedy sick unplanned arriving growth! And as the cherry in top of the cake city “staff” ruined the waste collection bid won by Waste Pro excellent service as the lowest bidder $26 versus FCC Environmental at $33 city chosen until WP attorney contested it, so now in a 12 month extension without a 5 to 10 year contract WP has to raise in June our rate to $29…given the shaky chances that apparent “favoritism” from city staff will make it impossible to have a fair tratment on the next bid. So we pay, pay pay for the city mistakes or special interest satisfactions. And yes is the city’s council, mayor and staff fault!
Joyce Jolley says
The Splash pad is a well loved and fun thing for our kids. One of the few in Flagler County. Stop cutting corners and do it right. Maybe forgo the massive raises you have given yourselves and take care of your constituents needs.
DMF in Florida says
EVERYONE: Please contact Michael Martin and offer to sign the petition he is trying to circulate.
He needs 7,500 valid voter signatures by the early May deadline to address the outrageous salary increase for the council members as well as initiate a change in the process that would require future increases to be placed on the ballot for the voters!
All you have to do is provide your name, address, either DOB or voter #, sign, date, and return it to him. The SPREAD the word to everyone you know who is a registered voter.
again ………. Michael Martin and ask for a copy of the petition, then share it!
DMF in Florida says
[email protected] is his contact e-mail address for the petition
Mike Martin says
charterpetition.com. Information and you can download the Petition form and mail it back to me print as many copies as you like and share this with your friends and neighbors. My name and address are on the Petition Form, above where you fill it out. My email is [email protected]. I hope you all get involved. Latest new, they dropped their demands to $35,000 plus heath insurance. Are they crazy?
Mark1 says
Such a waste of money. Considering there is a pandemic and kids that are un vaccinated shouldn’t be playing on a playground with other children, STAY HOME! Social distance. Keep your family safe.
Mark says
Does anyone really trust this Council to do the right thing? Where’s the insurance on this project? The Council needs to hire an expert in these kind of matters with splash pads/water parks then decide if it makes to sense to scrap it. May actually be a whole lot cheaper to listen to an expert and make the repairs than to trust the Council with a knee jerk reaction.
Villa Beach Walker says
“The designer of record, S&ME, has not been willing to participate in repairs. That means the city needs to bring in a new designer…”.
Aaron Goldberg, PE, D.GE and Vice President and Principal Engineer-Senior Project Manager at S&ME is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Florida. You’d think that a licensed Professional Engineer and VP of a company that was the designer of record on this project would at least be willing to review the facility and point out where the implementation doesn’t match the design. I thought that was why one engaged state licensed Professional Engineers for these types of projects.
The dude says
That splash pad is one of the few redeeming qualities in this city.
They need to fix it. Splash pads operate flawlessly all over the country every summer, this one can too.
Families need things like this.
Brad West says
You want accountability? Lauren Johnston, former Parks & Rec Director then Chief of Staff/Parks & Rec Director and now Assistant City Manager, who was overseeing that project. There were glaring issues over a year ago that she withheld. When the grand opening was pushed which we were working on together back I asked why. It was like pulling teeth to get an answer. The Stormwater & Engineering Director was who I had to go to for the truth. It was a glue issue. Glue was bubbling up, padding coming up and flaking, and filtration issues because of it. A manufacturer did come down who said it was the right glue. I told her we had to be truthful with the community and had to fight tooth and nail with her. When she went to the City Manager he agreed with me and we issued a release explaining there was a problem and opening delayed. Weeks later I was told we are a go for “an unveiling”. Come to find out later “unveiling” was because she knew there were still major issues. “Unveiling” day happens and yay. We pack up and go back to the office. No sooner am I back there am I getting messages as to why it’s closed. I am calling people at Parks & Rec to find out and no one is responding. Finally the Comms person at Parks responds and say, “You didn’t hear this from me but . . .” What is that?! Same issue and cause filtration problems which was a health hazard. I’m going into community groups on FB and telling the truth. When I finally saw Lauren after the weekend I told her we need to get a statement with the truth out about the issues. I was told it was a “break in period”.
It’s a good amenity. Spend the $600k, get it right, and sue those people. AND demand accountability. You want to complain? Complain directly to the source by emailing the City Manager and flood the City of Palm Coast Parks & Recreation page with your displeasure.
DMF in Florida says
@ Brad … thank you for having the cajones to get this information out there for people to look into.
After all the money they have sunk into it, sue the contractor, invest in making it right, and let the families in Palm Coast have something enjoyable for their tax dollars! I don’t have young kids anymore but I sure would take them to the park on a hot day.
Places ALL OVER FLORIDA have splash pads that function nicely. Who had their hot little hands in whose pocket back when this all occurred?
Grace says
My grandkids loved the splash pad. I don’t understand why there is such a problem in getting one to function. There’s one in downtown Chicago near the “bean” that’s been there for years with no problems.
Palm coast says
People who say scrap it must not have kids . I lived in palm coast for 20 years with out side walks and lights. Kids need a park they dont need lights .I swear all of u that came to palm.voast and now complaining gtfo of here… But the builders shoul be sued . It took 3 weeks for everything to start barking down .
Anthony Czerepka says
Just spent a week in the desert, Phoenix. There are splash pads everywhere. I had my granddaughter with us and she tried a few of them out. If they were open they worked. NO issues with the soft floor, which they all had, so maybe just maybe the contractor Palm Coast hired had no idea how to apply the soft floor material. As I said I saw 20 splash pads and every angle one of them had the soft deck and not one of them showed any signs of coming apart. I will say some of these look they they have some age on them. I would assume these get a lot of use in the desert, it was 90+ degrees, headed to 100 degrees and its only April. Hire one of those contractors to fix our Splash Pad and sue the contractor who did the sub standard work, and lets not wait for 2 years to do it. We have been kicking this can down the road since last summer. SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!