Responding to residents’ feedback, the Champaign Park District is expanding hours for their splash pads at Douglass Park and Hessel Park.
The pads at both parks will now be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. They previously were operational from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“We’ve been getting feedback for the last couple seasons,” said Chelsea Norton, the park district’s director of marketing and communications. “Traditionally we have started them at 11 but people felt it was already hot by then or it was too close to naptime. If we started them at 10, you could get some play time and then get home in time for lunch or a nap.”
Norton stressed that the park district will change the hours on an experimental basis, lasting through the rest of the season (typically Labor Day). No plans for 2020 have been determined.
“We’ll assess the water use — because it is expensive to run — and assess the impact and see how it goes,” she said. “We’ll see if we can make an adjustment (in the future).”