This past week, Copeyon Park was once again being substantially changed by the construction of a community splash pad.  If you recall back in 2017, seventeen trees were taken down in Copeyon Park in and around the vicinity of where they are now putting the splash pad.  At the time, city officials tried numerous ruses to dismiss the notion that they cut down many healthy ash trees for the sake of the proposed kid's water park, but records and eventually Tree Advisory Board member Tom Coleman confessed that the trees were taken down for the crime of making the area too shady for a splash pad to flourish.

After the first day of work last week, where Hardman Contracting payloaders and bulldozers created a mud bog in the southern section of the park, truckloads of sand were brought in by the company and filled the holes (not surprisingly the husband and wife owners of Hardman were part of the seven person Splash Pad Committee, but that's another matter for a different kind of analysis now that significant amounts of public dollars may be used for this project).

If you grew up loving the green grass and shady trees of Copeyon on your family visits there, it's quite different now with a wide open space covered with sand being its prominent feature.  This sand will soon be covered by a splash pad that features water games for children on hot summer days.  Many city officials and proponents think it will be quite popular, and bring many locals and tourists to an often-neglected city park to enjoy the new amenity.  

If their wish comes true, it will become a terrible danger to the community and its visitors.  To understand why, let's first take a look at a topographic map of the Copeyon Park area.  If you are unfamiliar with such maps, they are maps that contain elevation contour lines connecting points having the same elevation on the surface of the land above or below a reference surface, like a sea or lake.

The brown lines on this map refer to lines of equal elevation above PM Lake; when brown lines get close together, height is increasing dramatically and you have a hill.  The current entrance into Copeyon Park (northern highlighted area) crosses three contour lines as would any other entrance coming off Washington Avenue, the service road to the south is actually on Oxychem property and since the three are closer together, even more steep than the Copeyon entrance (seen below).  

Any entrance considered will necessarily be steep.  The existing entrance road is fairly narrow and will generally allow two vehicles to pass by each other with little to spare.  Utility poles block pedestrian usage on the shoulder, what little shoulder there is since the entrance road is effectively built on a ridge shooting down into the park.   On either side of this narrow ingress into the park lies only private property, and no way else to get into Copeyon without trespassing over generally impassable and steep territory, even if you're on foot.

The one tight entrance in for all types of traffic is the same one tight entrance out for all types of traffic.  Only the sturdiest of bicycle riders can get up this hill without walking their bike up, many that ride their bicycle down it that do not liberally apply their brakes invite calamity.  For those trying to turn left out of the park, visibility to the south is dangerously low.

Copeyon Park has been historically a quiet fishing park, excellent for a picnic or family outing when people would want to avoid the crowds at Stearns Park, and would also like a lakeside vista and/or some shade.  Many thought its under-utilization was a bonus for those pursuits.  Those people will be rightly upset over Copeyon being a popular destination, but they are likely also well aware of the dangers that await those who may flock there on warm summer days-- especially those unaware of the park's features and limitations.  

The park has 74 dedicated parking spaces, including several long 'boat trailer' sites for those who launch their boat from the nearby piers.  Sidewalks for pedestrians are very limited, and no plans for sidewalks have yet been introduced to get people from the parking lot to the pad.  If they just extend the sidewalk going to the gazebo to the northwest of the splash pad, which is likely, people walking out to the pad will likely walk in the road from most of these parking spots.  This isn't all that unsafe normally, but when the lot is full or near full of diagonal parkers, with people circling around for parking spots, and people backing out with limited visibility, it becomes a worry.

Let's consider what could happen in 2020 when this park may be finished and that first real hot day just happens to fall on Saturday, July 4th.  Let's even presume that all are driven to the park and low numbers turn out, let's say only 3% of the splash-pad-aged children in the area turn out to Copeyon Park after the parade to cool off and see what the fuss the City is making about the new facility is all about. 

If Mason County is like the rest of Michigan, children aged 14 and under make up over 20% of the population, meaning there are over 5000 kids in the county.  Neglecting the thousands of kids in the county as tourists that day, if 3% of the local kids decide to go to Copeyon at the same time, unless they arrive with an average of more than two in every vehicle, the parking lot will be full and overflowing.  

What happens when the parking lot is full?  Some parents may drop off their kid(s) then drive around in circles waiting for a spot to open up.  They will need to keep driving because others will be coming in behind them also wanting a spot.  The game of 'musical parking spots' will gain players until they reach a critical mass and some will necessarily have to head out to alleviate the gridlock, some parents may have to leave their young kids deep within the park without either party knowing how they can reunite again without once again driving into the park and having to be stuck on a steep hill behind others with similar enigmas.  

With that considered, consider adding kids on bicycles going down a steep hill where cars are backed up, kids on bicycles necessarily pushing their bike up the hill in front of cars that barely have the horsepower to crest the hill with a running start.  Consider the chaos of kids and adults walking into and out of Copeyon on that same steep road where they cannot fit when two vehicles pass each other.  

Consider what would happen if an accident occurs in the dangerous conditions on that entrance ramp or in that parking lot that requires an ambulance, rescue truck and police to respond.  Consider that people could be trapped at the splash pad for quite awhile when such incidences happen that block one or both lanes.

Copeyon Park was never designed to be built for large events and can never accommodate such large events without serious modifications and land acquisitions.  It's design is not conducive to being a popular destination, and it will only become a tremendous liability when it does.  The splash pad committee and two secret squirrel city standing committees meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Act were able to circumvent or ignore these issues to the detriment of us all when they chose Copeyon Park without any sane rationale.

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And not being able to put a sidewalk down the hill is an accident waiting to happen. Apparently the city does not own the road or have enough of an easement to put in a sidewalk.

There are so many better areas that this splashpad could have been put, especially in conjunction with the new school property.

What a shame. And we pay higher water fees every year while the city will run water like it's free and we'll pay something like $9000 in water a year, plus maintenance.

And the city wonders while people are mad while they stifle any intelligent discussions.

I don't see a problem with parking as as soon as the kids run into the 60 degree water they will want to go home and never come back. Can you say waist of money? again. West end project? Whats the James street project called ? besides waist of more money?

Good report and analysis X, however using common sense to explain all this to our city leaders is just a waste of time. Same with the committee that promotes and sponsors this splash pad. It's a shame all the peace and privacy of Copeyan will now be lost to locals, and the future possibilities of many dangers are ignored. And as stump mentioned too, if the water is not heated for the pad, it's going to be quite cold for the kids, and they may not use it much until the water is heated, or PM Lake water gets much warmer.

The liability for the City seems to be tremendous. This park will be turned into a lawsuit paradise from kids being hit on their bikes to being run over by cars coming and going and slipping on the pad and cracking open their little noggins. Why in God's name are the people who run Ludington so ignorantly stupid. Just the maintenance alone will cost a fortune.

Thanks X for the research and information.

 Aquaman, the water the splash pad will be using unheated city water, not lake water.

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