Funds from the additional 3-percent sales tax at Petal restaurants paid off in a cool way right in time for spring break, as city officials recently announced the opening of the much-anticipated splash pad at Friendly Park off Hillcrest Drive that was made possible with those monies.
After a trial run earlier this month – and taking care of some additional last-minute items on the project – the splash pad was opened to the public on March 11.
“The initial response has been incredible – folks from all over the area are getting to enjoy this, and there’s a lot of kids out there, so we’re excited,” Mayor Tony Ducker said. “We’re having a 30-team (baseball) tournament out there … so we’re excited that people are getting to see where those 3 percent monies are going.”
The surface of the new pad is painted blue, with bright green poles and fixtures. In addition to the water that shoots up from the ground, the structure also features splash buckets that tip over when full, along with water cannons.
“Folks are showing up already,” Ducker said. “I’ve made it a point to go that way when I’ve had to do things around town, and every time, it just seems like there’s a pack of kids in there, with some parents and stuff hanging around.”
The $450,000 project is being fully paid with funds from the 3-percent tax, which was approved in August 2021 during a special election. In that referendum, 74 percent of the 457 total voters approved the measure, with 344 voting for the tax and 113 voting against it.
The tax required a 60 percent voter approval to pass. The funds raised from the tax are going toward the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which allows the city to maintain that department at its current level.
That, in turn, frees up money in the city’s fund for other endeavors and projects, such as pay raises for the police and fire departments, as well as improvements in the Parks and Recreation Department. The tax began to be collected in October 2021.
In early April 2022, the Petal Board of Aldermen approved – among other financial measures – the transfer of $1.2 million into a capital project fund. Those funds have been used for measures such as the splash pad and new soccer fields at the Robert E. Russell Sports Complex. The city will “pay itself back” over time with the money collected from the 3 percent tax increase.
“Discussions on any of these things would not be taking place without (that tax),” Ducker said. “And we continue to monitor what that number is for us each month – it’s an increasing number.
“The dream of having the benefit for the restaurants falls in line with us being able to have more tournaments (at the sports complex), so you do hope more folks will be at the restaurants when it’s all said and done. One of the things that we can do is try to bring as many folks from outside (into the city) every opportunity we get.”
Of the funds received every month from the 3 percent sales tax increase, $65,000 per month goes to operating the Parks and Recreation Department. When the tax was first implanted, city officials expected it to bring in approximately $75,000 per month, but a year into the collections, it had exceeded that expectation at an average of $82,532 per month.
“I really felt going into this that turf on the baseball fields, soccer fields, the splash pad and improvements at the sportsplex were really the top four things that people, when they went to vote on that, were in the back of their minds,” Ducker said. “It’s one of those things where people had faith that we were doing what we said we were doing, so seeing some of this stuff come to life is almost in the ‘promises made, promises kept’ area.”
