New water park will open in a Wichita suburb this weekend. Here’s where

The new Park City Aquatic Park, featuring a splash pad, water slides, climbing wall and three distinct water areas, will make its debut this weekend.

It is scheduled to have a soft opening from 3-6 p.m. Saturday and 2-6 p.m. Sunday before going to regular hours Monday.

Those hours are noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1-6 p.m. Sundays starting June 7. The aquatic center is scheduled to close for the season on Aug. 1.

The aquatic center is in Hap McLean Park, which is scheduled to get a complete renovation starting this summer and taking about a year to complete, according to Mayor John Lehnherr.

The city has hired 28 employees for the water park, serving as managers, lifeguards and facility attendants, who will handle everything from concessions and ticket sales to whatever else needs to be done, according to Assistant City Manager Dana Walden.

Lehnherr said the $7.5 million project, being paid for with proceeds from Park City’s local-option sales tax, is sized right for Park City, which had an estimated population of 9,458 last year, according to Census data.

It could have been fancier, Lehnherr said. But the City Council wanted to make the pool a place where families can afford to go multiple times a week. And, with daily passes for Park City residents costing $4 a day ($3.50 for 55 and up, and free for babies under 1), 10-day punch passes at $25 for residents, single-person season passes for residents at $120 and family season passes at $180, Lehnherr said a good balance has been struck.

Non-residents will pay $5 for daily passes, $35 for 10-day punch passes, $150 for single-person season passes and $210 for family season passes.

Park City Public Library Director Julie Mills thinks the aquatic center will become a primary gathering spot for families.

“I can’t help but look at it from the lens of a librarian,” said Mills, who also serves as president of the Park City Chamber of Commerce. “It will bring people together. It’s one of the places that families will use to gather in the community. It’s going to be another wonderful addition to the other things that are going on.”

Park City once had a public pool, but it closed for good in 2012 as public preferences changed and keeping up with repair and maintenance costs became more and more of a challenge, Walden said. That pool was built in a flood plain in the 1950s. It leaked, and attendance numbers and maintenance costs were headed in the wrong directions when the City Council decided to do away with it, Walden and Lehnherr said.

Even though not a lot of people were using the pool with each passing year, since it closed the city has consistently heard from people who wanted to see a new pool built, Walden said.

But it wasn’t until the local-option sales tax went into effect in 2023 that the city had a way to pay for the project, Lehnherr said.

“We promised the community that the sales tax money would be used for projects that were community driven,” the mayor said.