It's a project that began a little more than four years ago and all came together this week with just about perfect timing.
A stretch of days with the temperature reaching into the 90s has made for a busy time for Jackson's highly anticipated splash pad. The facility opened for the first time Tuesday and there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate its opening on Thursday.
Chelsea Honnette of the Splash’n Jackson Committee said seeing the facility open for the first time was a great feeling.
"When the first startup happened and some of the kids were able to come down and see it and see the pure joy on their faces made every single roadblock that we've experienced and got through so much sweeter for all of us," she said.
Getting the facility started took a great deal of hard work by the committee, which met for the first time in May 2017.
"It started with a great idea of how can we bring this to Jackson," said Chelsea Honnette. "One person had the idea and started asking people if they wanted to participate and lo and behold, we're here four years later celebrating it. I will tell you that the first year we started fund-raising we thought we could do it in one year. Through some challenges and some major adversity, we overcame it and got to the location that we're at today."
Several sites in town were explored for the project.
Working with the City of Jackson and the Jackson County Central School District, it was decided to locate the facility on the east side of JCC High School, adjacent to the softball-baseball complex.
"We just can't thank the city and the school district enough for working together and coming up with a great solution of putting it in the location where it is. We feel super lucky that everyone who comes to this space can take in baseball, softball and get a little splash pad action, too."
The splash pad is open daily from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. There is no charge for its use.
"There are no real conditions put on using it," Honnette said. "We just ask that everybody is respectful of the space and treat it with high regard. We don't want to see trash laying around and things like that."
Any project takes support from throughout the community in addition to the organizing committee.
"We were super fortunate to have some amazing donors, both families and communities," said Honnette. "We did a lot of grant writing as well, but it really took our whole community to make this happen. We're very fortunate for the community that supported us."