Chinook Winds Spray Park on the west side of Airdrie has been given a behind-the-scenes facelift in preparation for the tentative 2021 opening date of July 1st.

Kevin Brinson, Parks and Rec Team Leader for The City of Airdrie, says much of the work was done on underground equipment where most of the spray park users won't notice the difference.

"Over the years, water pushes things out of the ground and it had pushed some of our drains out. We had to pull these drains out and reset them."

Along with resetting drains that had come out of place, some repairs needed to be done on the rubber surfacing surrounding the giant bucket. 

"It had started to tear away from the surface so we had to rip it all up," says Brinson " We had to wait for the contractor to come out and relay a bunch of new stuff."

Brinson noted the project itself didn't take a very long time and that most of the time was spent waiting for parts to come from Quebec. He says it wasn't easy getting the parts they needed shipped to Alberta due to staffing shortages caused by the pandemic.

With the pipe resets and the new rubber surfacing set to be completed in the very near future, Brinson says he's confident the spray park will be in tip-top shape by July 1st.

As for future Chinook Winds Spray Park projects, Brinson notes they will still have to maintain quality control through AHS with chemical balances and other rules similar to swimming pools. He says routine maintenance and inspections will be done throughout the spray park season. 

When it comes to COVID-19 protocols for the spray park, Fred Cheney from the City of Airdrie says they can't predict what public health orders will be like by the time opening day rolls around.

"We will absolutely adhere to whatever the AHS restrictions are on that date. It’s too early for us to speculate what they may be, but as they are continually updated, we will be complying with whatever is deemed appropriate."