Group hopes to see new Dartmouth splash pad built and used this year

A previously postponed splash pad for Dartmouth has been delayed again.

Although it’s part of Halifax Regional Municipality’s recently passed budget, a city hall spokesperson said the project has to be subject to the public tendering process for a second time.

“In terms of next steps, the municipality plans to re-advertise” a request for proposals to design and build the pad, Laura Wright said Wednesday.

She confirmed the project is part of the approved 2021-22 capital budget.

Rick Mayuk, of Friends of the Dartmouth Splash Pad and Park, said the group is hopeful the planned aquatic play area gets built and used for the first time this year.

“We’re uncertain as to the prioritization of this project and the transparency of the prioritization,” he told HalifaxToday.ca Thursday.

Mayuk said the Friends have asked the municipality to commit to a construction timeline. “We would like to see that, in respect of the contribution financially the community is making,” he said.

A municipal staff report says city hall intends to provide $500,000 of the estimated $650,000 total for the splash pad. Local fundraising efforts will contribute $150,000.

The community group Mayuk is involved with has reached its fundraising goal, thanks in large part to a $110,000 donation from the family of the late Shirley Clarke, of Dartmouth, who died last year at age 89.

Shirley’s Splash Pad is the official name of the still-to-be-built site, proposed for the Dartmouth Common, near the skateboard park off Windmill Road and across from the Zatzman Sportsplex.

The splash pad had been in the tender queue. But the municipality’s original request for proposals, which closed on March 24, said “this project has been cancelled in its entirety.”

That’s not quite so, said Wright.

She said after municipal staff evaluated the proposals received for the Dartmouth Common project, “it was determined that no compliant bids met the minimum technical score. Therefore, the RFP was cancelled,” Wright said via email, but not the project itself.

Mayuk said his group was notified of the snafu regarding the request for proposals on April 14. He said he understood the tender would be reoffered within a week.

“We stay focused and hopeful that the city will … move with purpose, and get this RFP reissued and find the best proponent” who’ll construct the splash pad in 2021, Mayuk said in a phone interview.

In 2019, Halifax council “approved the municipality’s long-term aquatic strategy, which identified Dartmouth as a short-term priority for a splash pad,” the RFP says.

There are six splash pads in Halifax Regional Municipality, according to a 2020 staff report.

On May 4, Halifax Regional Municipality’s 2021-22 budget was approved by regional council. A city hall news release says the budget includes $833 million in municipal expenditures, a mandatory provincial contribution of $173.8 million and a capital plan of $177.9 million.

Last year, the Dartmouth splash pad plan was placed on the back burner because of financial pressure caused by the arrival of the coronavirus. HRM departments had to revise their budgets, and this project was one of many cost-cutting components.

Friends of the Dartmouth Splash Pad and Park was established in 2017, so the project has been years in the making. Initially, when the request for proposals was issued in early March, the completion date for the project was July 15.

The Dartmouth Common site was approved after HRM did a feasibility study. The park is to remain open during splash pad construction, whenever it takes place.

Mayuk said “the community would like to encourage the city to explore all opportunities to continue on the path that was committed” toward building the pad.

Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth