A much-loved waterslide park in central Alberta will be closing its doors at the end of this season.
Operators of the Wild Rapids Waterslide Park in Sylvan Lake announced Monday that 2016 would be the last year that the facility would operate, following a 34-year run.
Bear Development Corp. blames the shutdown on increasing operating costs associated with upgrades and upkeep of the aging facility.
“We are faced with having to complete major renovations and improvements in order to meet the new building code, health and safety requirements,” a Monday news release stated. “These include replacing some of the slides as well as the mechanical infrastructure which means that we would need to close for a season in order to complete the work.”
Operators said they didn’t believe they’d be able to complete the renovations and also keep a “reasonable family fee structure.”
“The end result of our analysis confirmed that it was not economically feasible for us to complete the improvements and meet our objective.”
“2016 will the last year that the Wild Rapids Water Park will be operating.”
Watch below: A water park that has been in the town of Sylvan Lake for 34 years will soon be no more. The Wild Rapids Waterslide Park will shut down Sept. 5 due to high maintenance costs. Town officials said they are sad to see it go but add they expect the loss to only be sentimental. Julia Wong has more.
The town of Sylvan Lake is located about 160 kilometres north of Calgary, and about 160 kilometres south of Edmonton.
The Wild Rapids Waterslide Park opens to the public on June 29.