Memorial Day weekend marks more than cook outs and racing. It's also the day area swimming pools open.
Monroe County Parks and Recreation Department staff scurried to prepare the Splash Pad at Karst Farm Park on Bloomington's west side before the skies opened. Soon the park will be full of people wanting to get wet.
Monroe County Park Superintendent Jeff Sanders said last year's grand opening was a success.
"It went over really good I thought. Our day camp uses it and then on the weekends we had it open to the general public. I came out here when the park was open and it was always full."
What you don't see is the state of the art system that keeps the splash pad safe.
"The water comes from our tank into our pump house and from our pump house out through our different fixtures right here and back into our drain and pump house."
The filter system uses an ultraviolet light as bright as a welder torch that kills any bacteria before a computerized water feature program sends the water back to the pad.
"When the users come in, they hit this yellow bollard right here behind me and that activates the system," said Sanders. "It chooses randomly from one of the four programs and the timing block we got on it right now is a ten minute time block and it randomly goes through that ... if some of the fixtures are on, some are off."
There is no entry fee at Karst Farm Park. Hours are 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. Friday through Monday.