PEA RIDGE -- Unsupervised children have caused damage to the city's splash pad costing the taxpayers money.
Several children were playing in the splash pad July 16 unsupervised, according to the city. The city's video surveillance shows no adults inside the fenced splash pad area as children played and one child damaged a piece of equipment.
"We've recently had a couple of issues with vandals ... more kids playing too hard," said Nathan See, city Street Department superintendent. "We've had to repair the umbrella twice, the buckets once. We've had issues with the sunscreen [from the sunscreen dispenser] being smeared everywhere.
"We just need parents to take a little more active role in watching their children to respect the area," See said.
"This is definitely an amenity to the community. It costs a little more than $300,000 with a shared grant with Arkansas Parks and Tourism," See said, explaining the grant was essential to the city's ability to afford the amenity.
"We have applied for another grant from Arkansas Parks and Tourism in another location to do a park there, too," he said.
"The main thing we want to stress is parents need to be inside the fence at all times that children are inside. Don't leave children unattended," See said.
"It's good no one was hurt," See said. "If the piece had fallen a different direction, it could have smashed that small child there" he said, pointing to children visible on the city's video. He said the child was "shaking the mushroom" vigorously causing it to fall. The cost to repair will be more than $1,200.
Most of the damage is caused by children shaking the tall apparatus, he said.
"We want everybody to have a good time and be safe," he said. Rules are posted on the gate and back fence and on social media.
"There's a reason the rules are in place -- for the safety for everyone in the facility," he said.
See said there were many people using the pavilion that day, yet no adults were with the children in the splash pad, as city rules require.