$290K splash pad coming to this popular Port Royal park soon. Here are the details
A $290,000 splash park is coming Bruce Edgerley Field in Port Royal in early 2025. It’s the latest in a string of improvements at the popular park including the installation of $800,000 in new playground equipment last year.
Splash pads, also known as spraygrounds, are water play areas with interactive water features or fountains for play. They usually have water spraying upward and involve no standing water.
In 2023, the Beaufort County announced plans to add a 2,200-square-foot $655,000 plash pad at Oscar Frazier Park in Bluffton.
But Port Royal’s splash pad will be the first in northern Beaufort County. Bruce Edgerley Field is located at the intersection of Richmond Avenue and 16th Street.
Splash pads are increasingly popular because they provide aquatic entertainment for all ages and abilities and come with fewer operation and maintenance requirements and costs than a traditional pool, according to the National Recreation and Parks Association.
The addition of the $290,000 splash pad is a logical followup to the $800,000 in playground equipment that Beaufort County installed at the park in 2023, Town Manager Van Willis said. “That playground sees so much use,” Willis said.
The splash pad will be installed during the first quarter of 2025, Willis said.
The town and Beaufort County, which manages parks across the county including those located in municipalities, are partnering on the splash pad, Assistant Town Manager Brooke Plank-Buccola said.
Port Royal will pay to install the splash pad while Beaufort County will maintain it, she said.
The town is using American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project. ARPA, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, guaranteed funding to local municipalities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline to obligate the money is Dec. 31.
“We went to council and said, ‘Hey, what is something council would like to see for the citizens and kids to do in Port Royal,” Willis said.
Cary, North Carolina-based Carolina Parks and Play is supplying the splash pad equipment while Year Round Pool of Bluffton is handling the installation, Plank-Buccola said.
Mayor Kevin Phillips marveled at how far the park has come in the last few years. Besides having the only ADA-accessible playground in northern Beaufort County, Bruce Edgerley has a senior center, a stand-alone bathroom, in addition to baseball and soccer fields, Phillips noted. Now it’s getting a splash pad. And speed bumps, which will slow traffic on nearby streets, and additional parking also are in the works.
“For such a little piece of property right in the heart of Port Royal it’s an amazing community piece that literally all generations can enjoy,” Phillips said.
Southside Park sees improvements, too
The addition of the splash pad is not the only big park news in the area.
The city of Beaufort recently completed $4.8 million in improvements at Southside Park — located two miles north of Bruce Edgerley Field in Port Royal — that includes new playground equipment, picnic area, pavilion and access, parking and trail improvements. A ribbon-cutting is planned at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
“Southside Park — no offense — will have nothing on us,” Port Royal Town Councilman Darryl Owens said in reference to the Bruce Edgerley Field improvements.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 12:03 PM.
