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City Council of Peachtree City
<br />Special Called Work Session Meeting Minutes
<br />Thursday, April 21, 2022
<br />4 p.m.
<br />The Mayor and Council of Peachtree City met for a special called work session on Thursday, April 21,
<br />2022. Mayor Kim Learnard called the meeting to order at 4 p.m. Council members attending:
<br />Gretchen Caola, Frank Destadio, Mike King, and Phil Prebor.
<br />Agenda Items
<br />a. FY2022-2023 Budget
<br />1. Splash Pad
<br />A number of residents, Learnard reported, had questioned why they had to pay to use the splash pad
<br />for toddlers if they did not use the pool?
<br />Recreation and Special Events Director Quinn Bledsoe said a citizen committee researched 28 splash
<br />pads in 11 other cities before Peachtree City built theirs. The consensus from officials in those cities was
<br />not to let it be free because they would be overrun by kids from day camps and day care centers and
<br />ruin the experience for citizens. Bledsoe said she had experience with this when she worked for
<br />Jacksonville, Florida. They had a splash pad about three times the size of Peachtree City's, and they
<br />had to hire someone to stand at the front and let 30 people in at a time for 15 minutes. Free sometimes
<br />encouraged over -consumption, she remarked, and she did not think it was a good idea to open it up.
<br />It was not the financial part of it; it was the operational experience for residents.
<br />Newnan's and Fayetteville's splash pads were free, the Mayor noted; what did they say? Bledsoe said
<br />she had visited only the Fayetteville pad, and it was "like an anthill." Learnard asked if they did not
<br />want to make it free because people from other communities might come and enjoy it? and Bledsoe
<br />replied that it was more of a capacity issue.
<br />It was small, Learnard agreed. She noted that the one in Newnan stopped if no one was using it, and
<br />the kids had learned how to start it up again if needed. Bledsoe said Peachtree City's had that feature,
<br />as well.
<br />Learnard asked about changes to the way people paid for pool admission. Bledsoe said they now
<br />could use a credit card or cash or buy a pool pass. Software installed this year meant they were no
<br />longer restricted to cash.
<br />Caola asked Assistant City Manager Justin Strickland if there were a lot of kids there when he took his
<br />own kids to the splash pad? He said he had not observed any overcrowding. Destadio asked him
<br />when he went? Almost every weekend in the summer, he replied.
<br />How much did it cost? Destadio asked. Admission was $6 for an adult, and $5 for a child. An annual
<br />family pass was $230. These prices included admission to the pool and the splash pad.
<br />They discussed this when the splash pad and pool opened two years ago and decided it would be
<br />pay as you go, King recalled. Now were they saying it should be free? Just the splash pad, Learnard
<br />stated. Caola said she was not sure about that.
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