ASHLAND — The Salvation Army Kroc Center is gearing up for the grand opening of its new, indoor water park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.
The center’s $7.7 million, 21,000 square-foot center includes a water park and a fitness center. Construction, which started May 2020, was scheduled to be completed by this summer, but the COVID-19 pandemic held up work.
A bulk of the funding came from the Joan B. Kroc Foundation with a $7.2 million donation. The other $500,000 came from local support dollars.
The water park and fitness center are set to open to the general public Dec. 4.
Tim Haglund, the center’s director of community relations and development, said the fitness center will be equipped with top-of-the-line exercise machines, both for cardio and muscle building.
On the other side of the building will be the indoor water park, featuring two separate slides, a lazy river, an open pool area with basketball hoops, a play area for young children and a water lily pad crossing section.
Memberships for both the water park and fitness center can be found online.
Haglund said the center has committed to raising $15,000 to help out with sponsored memberships.
“We want to start a sponsored membership fund so anyone can get a membership,” Haglund said.
To help raise the money, Salvation Army Maj. Billy Francis, Ashland City Schools Superintendent Doug Marrah and Comfort Control President Joe Reep have committed to compete for the chance to be the first person to slide down one of the new slides.
Whoever raises the most money wins.
The Kroc Center, located at East Liberty Street in Ashland, runs a food pantry and lunch program. It also has a daycare center and a gamut of programs for youth and adults.
Haglund said the food pantry distributed half a million pounds of food to the community during 2020, the most food it has given out ever.
What does it cost to swim at the kroc