Okay, good evening.

And welcome to this uh species special city council meeting regarding the splash pad location.

It is September 10th, 2025.

I'd like to call this meeting to order, and I asked the clerk to please call a roll.

Councilman Papiano.

President.

Councilman.

Here.

Councilman Raziano.

Councilman Heroyan.

President Councilman.

President.

Councilman Rentz.

Present.

Councilman Traff Conti.

Council President Wall.

Here.

Thank you.

Okay, before we start, a little bit of a programming note.

Um, I'm gonna open up the meeting by just explaining a couple of ground rules for those who are here this evening.

This meeting is only concerning the splash pad and the uh various location options that people may come up with.

That's what it was designed for.

I believe it was at the request, if I recall in the meeting, uh the administration, Director Maretti mentioned that about a month ago during a council meeting.

We thought it was a good idea.

So before we even go to if you want to introduce it a little bit, Director, that would be fine, and then I'll take public comment.

Sure.

Uh uh thank you, Council President Raw.

Thanks for calling the meeting on uh at the request of Mayor Hopkins um to be specific.

And thank you for those who are attending and those people that may be online.

Um as as uh indicated the uh the mayor uh is soliciting input from the city council uh and the public uh as to any input or suggestions as to where the next uh city splash pad should be located um you know before before the final decisions are made to do so.

Um the city has uh uh approximately 250,000 dollars of approved opera funds available and uh uh designated uh for construction uh of a splash pad.

Um this is on top of uh funds that have already been expended uh to purchase the water uh water park features and electronics um that were procured using opera funds.

So there's uh I'll make the statement that there was uh no expense to the taxpayers.

It's part of your federal dollars, I'm sure in some fashion paid for it throughout every resident, every taxpayer in the country, but it's probably a pretty good deal uh by using the OPA funds and not any direct uh funds from this uh directly from the city of Cranston.

Um just want to make a note, um, as I mentioned, it's approximately 250,000.

Uh judge you know, from the past, regardless of projects, whether the w whatever they are that there's construction project projects, when they go out to bid, they may not be exactly what we're the dollar amount where we're uh uh allowed or authorized.

Um there could be a possibility that uh the administration could be coming back if the if the construction bids uh exceed that amount of money.

Um but uh either way we believe that it probably wouldn't be or wouldn't be that much more.

We wouldn't expect it to be all that much more.

Um and uh we believe that there are uh some excess opera funds that could be available that were designated for other similar POCs and recreation facility projects uh where there are excess funds that that that came in uh under budget.

So we have a perfect world.

So I just want to put that little asterisk to this that there is that possibility.

Can't be guaranteed, depending on what uh what the what the bids uh come in at.

Um the we don't want to bias this discussion, certainly uh the administration is looking for objective input uh as to where uh uh uh uh the next splash pad should go.

But in order to stir uh a bit of thought, the um the administration uh has met with uh the the director of Pox Rec, Steve Piscopello, who's here this evening, along with uh Director Correo uh from Public Works to basically search out or evaluate, you know, to give you a little uh thought process to other potential to various uh location potential locations throughout the city.

So Mr.

Piscopello will share with you some ideas, but please don't take it to the bank, but it's just met for discussion, and I can tell you what our thought process was, and certainly welcome any input.

And again, we are soliciting uh objective uh suggestions um uh from both the the public here and online and most uh certainly uh with the city council.

Um with that um uh director Piscapello uh can share, I believe, some an image of the splash pad, the final product once it's completed, and then he has uh um a slide, uh handouts that he could share to again the three sites, potential sites um that the administration has identified as potential.

Um, but as I keep stressing, uh any other uh uh areas and justifications would be more than uh welcome.

So with that, uh if it's okay to defer to the uh director, please.

The floor is yours, Director.

Thank you, Council President.

Um thank you, Anthony, for uh the introduction.

Um if you can put up the slide of the uh the actual uh splash pad uh rendering.

Um this is the rendering that we um have already in place and the design um that goes with it uh for a specific uh um size uh splash pad.

The the beauty of this splash pad um will be that uh it's for all ages.

It can go from as early as three or four years old all the way up to 12, 13 years old.

So you're hitting pretty much the whole population of our youth that would um would conjugate at a place uh such as this.

Uh we looked at uh some sites around the city, and we basically felt as though um we would throw our a couple of uh ideas to the to the council and to the general public as to what we feel would be um locations that could potentially work.