9-20-17 riggs park splash pad-thousands of dollars over budget

A new splash pad at Riggs County Park seems to be a popular attraction, but it was the cost that caught Fond du Lac County officials by surprise.  A memo from Parks director Sam Tobias to county executive Al Buechel says paid expenses are more than $42,000 over the nearly $165,000 budget.  Tobias says an outstanding request from the contractor of project-related expenses would put the project more than $54,000 over budget.   Buechel says a variety of things caused the overage and says he’s not happy about it.  “No one person is to blame here,”  Buechel told WFDL news.  “After we got the engineeering study no one acknowleged or recognized the fact that the well pump is going to take three-phase power.  There is no three-phase power in the park.”   Tobias said in the memo after a high capacity well was drilled the driller discovered a shale layer in the well profile was collapsing, drastically reducing the well capacity.  “A  $12,052 change order allowed for re-drilling,”  Tobias said in the memo.  He says the shale problem  “could not have likely been anticipated.”   But even though the project is over budget, Buechel says the splash pad is important to the Ripon community.  “The issue is you rely on certain people to give you the correct answers and they don’t,”  Buechel said.  “Having known this I think we would have done this with our eyes open and probably considered the value of that splash pad because Ripon is a large community.”  Buechel  says  splash pad  has seen a lot of useage this summer.  “Yes, very high level of useage.  The kids found it the first day,”  Buechel said.  “Word spread very quickly once they realized it was working  and operating.”