Broadening horizons

The City of Asbury, Iowa, is a quickly growing community with a population that has nearly doubled since 2000. The Asbury City Council helped acquire approximately 30 acres of land in hopes of creating a new park facility to relieve pressure on the City’s primary park. The acreage, surrounded by existing and developing neighborhoods, presented an opportunity to add new amenities for the residents. When the Asbury Park Planning Board was asked to develop an overall concept for the new park, they turned to MSA for assistance.

MSA provided planning guidance during the early stages of the process and gathered input from area residents and City leaders, as well as the Asbury Athletic Association. From here, a conceptual plan was created. After considering a variety of options, a final plan was selected—one that targeted the addition of features and amenities that would appeal to, and serve, a wide range of ages and interests. These features included a baseball field, paved walking and biking trails, a series of three mountain bike courses, natural areas, hard surface athletic courts and pavilions.

A refreshing new vision

The first job tackled in 2010 was mass grading of the rough, overgrown site. As the site took shape, a new vision for the park began to emerge based on continued dialog with residents, the park board and city council. A driver for these changes was the need for a site for a new municipal well and well house that came into the picture in 2014. Taking advantage of this public works infrastructure, the well house footprint was expanded to include restrooms and storage.

Additionally, the Park Board championed an effort to add an even more exciting central attraction to the new venue—a zero-depth splash pad. The splash pad area covers nearly 4,500 square feet with a mix of 14 in-ground and above-ground spray features.  With a large number of users anticipated, a recirculating style system was selected and incorporates two 1,500-gallon reservoir tanks to reduce water usage and wastewater contribution to a downstream lift station. Mechanical systems for the splash pad are housed in the new wellhouse building and include a high horsepower pump, programmable controls for a fully adjustable range of sequence and durations of the features—as well as redundant chemical and UV disinfection to ensure safe treatment of water is supplied.

The new “sprayground” opened in May 2018, just in time for summer fun for many enthusiastic young families.