Heading into the second summer after Clearlake”s Outrageous Waters closed down in 2005, the unused water slides and other attractions sit waiting for a second home.
And it”s not that county Supervisor Anthony Farrington hasn”t tried. He got the less than enthusiastic ? and less than unanimous ? support of his fellow county supervisors in November to look into the cost and feasibility of moving them to a piece of county-owned land.
Farrington said Thursday that lack of support makes it unlikely that the equipment will go in on the only county-owned land that could accommodate it ? an eight-acre parcel in Upper Lake. “That forces me to look at working with private enterprise,” said Farrington.
Although he wouldn”t say who, Farrington said he is working with some private property owners “that are looking at bringing a water park to their property.”
Farrington took on the project recently hoping to keep the equipment available to Lake County”s youth when developer Barry Johnson bought the Outrageous Waters property with the intention of combining the 10-acre parcel with another city-owned parcel to crate a 35-acre “regional power center” for the city of Clearlake.
Johnson offered to donate the park equipment, including water slides, batting cages and a Grand Prix go-cart race track, also hoping to see it operational in the county.
Former owner Mike Walker, who ran the park along with his wife Dorrie, said in a walk-through last year that he spent $2.2 million on the park”s construction nine years ago. Their vision was to give the community”s kids a place to go, both for work and for play. Outrageous Waters employed about 70 high schoolers and 10 adults every summer.
The park was not closed due to lack of attendance, said the Walkers, noting that Outrageous Waters saw close to 50,000 people walk through its doors.
The Walkers” former partner decided to free up the collateral he had invested in it, and the Walkers were not able to raise enough money to buy him out, explained Walker.
Anxious to see the park up and running, Farrington asked in the fall of last year for the Board of Supervisors” OK to look into moving the equipment to county-owned land, and possibly running the park. Concerns were expressed regarding the yearly cost of insurance and start-up fees, with the Walkers estimating $150,000 for start-up fees and $100,000 to move the water slides.
Farrington he”s putting together some numbers to outline the profit and loss Outrageous Waters saw, as well as liability, payroll and property taxes for the interested parties.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
