Oak Harbor’s popular splash park is getting improvements that should cut down on the use of water and fix other difficulties.

During an Oak Harbor council meeting last week, Parks and Recreation Director Brian Smith was frank about the problems with the Shipwreck Shores Splash Park, pointing out that the water feature in Windjammer Park is less than 5 years old. The council members unanimously approved his request for $55,000 for a new water distribution system from Vortex Water System.

Smith said the splash park is a popular and “heavily used amenity” in the city. On one day in June, he counted 300 people using the splash park.

Yet there are serious concerns. Smith said it took many months to even find a vendor who was willing to come and look at the system.

Smith said the Odyssey controller for the system was outdated technology when it was purchased and there was no tech support in the region. In addition, the foot-activated water controls, which allow kids to turn on different water features, are already wearing out and will be replaced with independent activators on pedestals.

The system will also have a rain sensor that should save water.

“This brings us up to modern technology systems,” Smith said.

The ability for staff and park users to control the different water features on demand should cut down on the use of water, Smith said, but it’s unclear how much. Unlike other splash parks in the region, Shipwreck Shores doesn’t recirculate water, which means water goes straight to the sewage treatment plant after being used to splash kids.

“The city was using obscene amounts of water when we first opened the park as a flow-through system,” Smith said.

Two years ago, Councilmember Jim Woessner raised alarms about the park’s water usage when he read that the original $50,000 budgeted for water usage had doubled to $100,000. He pointed out that the amount was only for two to three months of operation.

Since then, Woessner learned that the $100,000 includes both the cost of water for the splash park and park irrigation. The cost is for the water itself and the sewage treatment.

As a result, a water meter was installed just for the splash park. During the meeting, Woessner asked to see the new numbers from last summer. Smith indicated the numbers were lower than in the first year of use, but he didn’t have figures handy.

City staff previously looked at replacing the splash park water system with one that recirculates the water but found it was cost prohibitive.

At the meeting, council members expressed consternation with the problems and questioned why the city would buy obsolete technology to begin with.

“I’m going to be extremely diplomatic and say the current setup is not great,” Councilmember Bryan Stucky said.