Renovated sprayground opens in Omaha’s Upland Park neighborhood

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - A South Omaha neighborhood welcomed an upgraded way to keep cool this summer.

City officials cut the ribbon Thursday to officially open the Upland Park splash ground.

In 1999 the pool was taken out and a spray pad was installed. Officials say that boosted the park’s attendance by about 7,500 people coming to cool off.

“Great timing,” said Omaha City Councilman Brinker Harding. “I suspect we’ll see a similar increase in activity as a result of this $400,000 reinvestment for this new splash ground.”

The new splash pad covers more than 2,600 square feet, complete with interactive spray features. This splash pad is one of 12 owned by the City of Omaha.

“It’s absolutely a feature that we think complements everything else we have really well,” said Omaha Parks Director Matt Kalcevich. “It’s an unstaffed facility, safety with no standing water. The function that handles the age range that it does, longer season, it can run outside of traditional pools.”

All of this new equipment helps create all of this fun -- and all of that cost a lot of money: $400,000. JBS and Swift Prepared Foods made all of these current and future good times here possible.

“The contributions of private companies like we had in this case are tremendous,” Kalcevich said. “Public-private partnerships are really the wave of the future for us to do more, to have greater connectivity with the community. We’re actively seeking those who want to partner with us because we know so many of the organizations and businesses in the community want to see the improvement as well and are about the betterment of the community like we are.”

Omaha city pools open for the season June 5. Splash pads around the city are already up and running; they could stay open past Labor Day, weather permitting.

Right now, city officials say they have enough lifeguards but could always use more. Applications are open on the city’s website.

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