Marshfield Parks and Recreation Director Justin Casperson speaks at the groundbreaking for the new Vandehey Waters Aquatic Center in Marshfield (Photo courtesy of WDLB Radio)
MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) –Marshfield’s new replacement for Hefko Pool is taking shape.
During a tour of the project on Thursday, city Parks and Recreation Director Justin Casperson told a small group of business and community leaders the work on the Vandehey Waters Outdoor Aquatic Center is on time and on budget so far. “They’re finishing up the bathhouse right now. They want to get that sealed up before Mother Nature takes hold, snow starts falling, and temperatures really start dropping.
“We’re lucky, fortunate, and thankful that we’ve had favorable temperatures so they’re able to work a little quickly. The pool vessels themselves, they’ve done most of the flatwork and now they’re starting to do the walls on all the vessels themselves. We just hope Mother Nature will keep cooperating with us. I know probably Rotary Winter Wonderland would like some snow but the Vandehey Aquatic Center would like sunshine and warm weather.”
Casperson said the discovery of asbestos in some of the piping from the old Hefko Pool slowed the demolition phase of the project by about three weeks —but now the new facility is quickly taking shape on the same site. “The footprint itself hasn’t significantly changed from the old footprint. The bathhouse is in relatively the same location, just a little farther south. The pool vessel, the pool itself is in relatively the same location, it’s just a little bit different layout. So the site hasn’t changed significantly.
“But the bathhouse is quite an improvement. Between the lobby, the concessions, the family changing rooms, the locker rooms, it’s a significant upgrade. Our mechanical building is now attached to our building so it’s all-encompassing. We’ll have sound, we’ll have video production inside with TV screens essentially to help promote, advertise events and activities. Outside we’ll have a family pavilion and a game area.
“The Century 21 Family helped support the game area. We’ll have foosball, ping pong, and cornhole. So there’ll be a game area for kids to hang out. Our goal was not only to make it a nice aquatic facility but make it a place for moms, dads, families to be able to hang out for the day and still be busy and active as their little ones enjoy the water.”
And Casperson said there will be concessions on-site as well. “We’re people can get hot dogs, or pizza, candy things of that nature. One of the things we toyed with and we struggled with and we thought would probably be in the best interest of this facility was not to sell ice cream. So we’re not going to be selling ice cream and the reason being is we would like our customers or our guests to visit the local establishments just right down the road.
“We have Hub City Ice Cream, we have Dairy Queen, and Webers is not very far away. And Chips does a great job with ice cream too. So we want them to visit these local businesses when they come to visit here. So we’re hoping to attract families and guests but also to frequent our businesses in the area.”
Casperson also said there is a live video camera at the construction site that updates every 15 minutes. It can be viewed at the city of Marshfield website.
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