A new addition to the Cabot community is causing quite a splash.
On May 26, the Cabot Parks and Recreation Department celebrated the grand opening of the Cabot Aquatic Park, 1245 Bill Foster Memorial Highway.
“We have the newest and the latest and greatest of play structures,” said Travis Young, general director of Cabot Parks and Recreation.
Young and Brian Bowen, Cabot Parks and Recreation aquatics director, said the $4.1 million state-of-the-art facility has play structures the whole family can enjoy. The park includes a diving well, a zero-entry pool, an open slide, a tube slide, dump buckets and a lazy river. Slides are designed for those at least 48 inches tall.
One of the park’s slides is 10 feet wide and 20 feet long, which provides room for at least two members of the family to experience the ride at the same time. Bowen had never seen a family slide until he visited the Cabot Aquatic Park.
“It’s just a blast because the entire family can hold hands and go down the slide,” he said.
About 150 attended the grand opening, and over grand-opening weekend, the park hit its maximum capacity of 522. Young said he hopes the park gets 60,000 visitors throughout the remainder of the year.
“Even though we were at maximum capacity, it didn’t feel overcrowded,” Young said.
Bowen said the park carries a bit of an industrial look throughout because of the steel and wooden beams in its structure.
“The architecture of the building itself is amazing,” he said.
Construction on the Cabot Aquatic Park began in late 2014, and its presence in the community has been much needed, said Bowen, who noted that Cabot’s previous pool was built in the early 1970s. He said the type of play structures at Cabot’s new water park are what you’d find at growing cities across the country.
The Cabot Aquatic Park offers reservations for groups, including private parties or semiprivate parties. Parties can opt to add the Freedom Room to their package, which is a red-white-and-blue air-conditioned, indoor room that helps attendees cool off.
“If it’s somebody who is going to have a lot of elderly people or people who need to be out of the sun, it offers another experience other than sitting outside in the blistering heat,” Young said.
Bowen, a USA Swim Team coach, said the park is also used for swim practices and that the lap lanes at the park are open every day. He said he enjoys that the park gives Cabot residents an entertainment option while also keeping them physically active.
“It offers the citizens of Cabot here a unique experience within the town itself,” Young said. “Attendance at traditional pools is falling every year. It’s not just your normal pool anymore. We still offer the same features, but there’s a unique aspect to it.”
American Red Cross-certified swimming lessons will take place at the park, and recreational swim programs can utilize the facility, too, Young said.
“We would like to find more ways to use our water park, whether it’s water aerobics or different classes that we could offer at our park,” he said.
The park’s concession stand, which includes a greaseless fryer, offers drinks, a variety of candy, nachos, taquitos, chicken strips and Slush Puppies. Young said there will be certain times throughout the year when the park may hold specials or offer specialty concessions, such as barbecue.
The Cabot Aquatic Park will be open seven days a week until the first day of school, after which the park will be open only on weekends and by reservation. The park will close for the year on Labor Day and will reopen in May 2017.
Bowen said he suggests that interested people visit the park and give it a try.
“Anytime that we can offer anything that’s out of the ordinary, that’s when people tend to get excited the most,” Young said.
The Cabot Aquatic Park is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 for those 4 feet or taller and $7 for those shorter than 4 feet. Seniors and military personnel receive $1 off the admission price. For more information, visit www.cabotaquaticpark.com.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.