Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 129, Number 8, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 23 February 2006 — Page 24

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• Advance News • Thursday, February 23, 2006

New water park in the cards for Wakarusa

By Anthony Godson Editor When speaking of the Town of Wakarusa in the year 2005, the word "water" comes up quite a bit. During the past year, Wakarusa has worked to repaint and repair its 200,000-gallon water tower east of town, updated its tap and connection fees for its water and sewer utilities, worked to bring a water park to the town and also worked with Elkhart County to improve West Waterford Street. WATER PARK With the help of a SIO,OOO matching grant from the Elkhart

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ADVANCE NEWS PHOTO/A.W. GADSON Among the upgrades made during Wakarusa’s Downtown Improvement Project were new street signs and stop lights.

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County Community Found-ation, Wakarusa plans to open its "Splashpad" just in time for summer. "It's something that will be fun, and the community has been supportive of it," Wak-arusa Town Manager Tom Roeder said. "We hope for construction to begin in late March, or early April. We're then planning to open it on June 5." The 55-foot by 62-foot splashpad will feature five fixtures which will spray water, along with water sprouting out of the ground at various other locations on the pad. The pad will work by youths pressing a designated but-

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ton, which will then start off a chain reaction. During this reaction, a different area will spray water for a period of time, until the whole cycle is completed. The complete cycle takes about 4 1/2 minutes. "That's good on water conservation, because when kids aren't there, the water won't be running," Roeder said. Along with the SIO,OOO grant from the ECCF, the $95,000 water park will be funded through private persons, businesses, the township and the town. Even though it's going to cost some money, Roeder feels it's a good thing to have in Wakarusa. "We don't have a pool or any other type of water activity," he said. "I think it's something the kids will enjoy," he added. WATER TOWER It is said that water towers last 100 years, but within that 100 years maintenance must be done. "Our tower began to rust a bit, and just needed some general maintenance," Roeder said of the 14-year old tower. The repairs were done to the inside and outside of the tower at a price of $98,000. The tower is located on the east side of town, just behind the BP gas station on State Road 19. WATERFORD STREET When Elkhart County decided to improve County Road 40, Wakarusa then decided to make it a joint effort, improving West Waterford Street at the same time. Waterford Street becomes CR 40 just outside of town to the west. "We just decided that since the street was going to be shut down anyway, we might as well do both projects at one time," Roeder said about upgrading West Waterford at the same time that the county was working on CR 40. Wakarusa coordinated its work with the county, bringing in the same company to do the work, which lasted approximately five months. During construction, the road was ripped out, and traffic was not allowed through.

Progress

, PHOTO PROVIDED An illustration of what the Wakarusa Splashpad will look like when completed in late spring.

"It was an inconvenience for some time, but now it’s nice," Roeder said. The Waterford project comes two years after the town improved its downtown area. During that time, streets were ripped out, but once the streets were replaced, Wakarusa had new utility lines, new streets, new stop lights and a new look. "We're pleased with it, and glad it's behind us," Roeder said about the downtown project. "It's just a little more attractive, and hopefully more customer-friend-ly-. It turned out well." Now with a second street project, Roeder feels the town is staying on top of potential problems.

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... FILE PHOTO McKenna Mikel enjoys Wakarusa’s sledding hill during a snowy weekend last year.

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FILE PHOTO Wakarusa put its new downtown to work in early August, inviting the North Wood football team, band and cheerleaders to an ice cream social that kicked Off the 2005 season. Maybe the social was lucky, as the football team went on to win the 3A state dtampronship for the first time in school history.

"We had a long-range street plan, and we try to work on a separate street each year," he said. Even though its population may not be that large, Wakarusa must still repair its streets on a regular basis because of the amount of the traffic industry brings in. "During the daytime, we have about 5,000 people here, whereas at night, it's about 2,000," Roeder said. UTILITIES For 2006, one of Roeder's goals for Wakarusa is to complete design and bid specifications for Phase 1 of its long-term Combined Sewer Overflow Control

Plan. As directed by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, cities and towns must now separate their sewage lines from their stormwater lines. In the past, it was believed that by combining the two, stormwater would help push sewage along. Now, that isn't the case. "We have six active combined sewers," Roeder said. "Two years ago, we were required to submit plans to IDEM, outlining our plans to de-combine the system." Wakarusa's plan is have all of its sewers consolidated within 14 years, at a price around $3 million.