Lemon drops, tumble buckets, a 10-foot-tall water umbrella, all run by a windmill? What? No, this is not fantasy. It will, in fact, soon be a reality at Lindbergh Bay.
Darlan Brin, Virgin Island Port Authority senior planner, said with a certain amount of pride that this is Phase 2 of Lindbergh Bay Park, the seemly little play area with the colorful slides and gazebo at the western end of the beach.
Becoming more animated as he talked about the project, Brin explained how it works.
"The lemon drops are really little water-filled round drops with holes in them – you cover one hole and water spouts out of another." And the tumble buckets? "Oh, it's a series of buckets that go around on a pole about 10 feet high, and dump water on whoever's underneath – same thing with the water umbrella."
The windmill and solar panels will provide the energy to the batteries that pump the seawater to the park. The water won't come directly to the park, but will be filtered through sand at 750 gallons a minute. Brin said he has applied for a federal grant for the solar project; the rest of the funding comes from VIPA.
"We're not trapping the water but letting it flow through, which will make it safer for the kids," Brin said.
The park is now a cement slab west of the gazebo, but Brin hopes that by September it will be a bona fide water park.
How did he get the idea for the park? Brin grins, picking up a magazine, "Landscape Architecture."
"It actually came out of an idea I saw in here," he said. He is modest about taking credit for the project about which he so obviously enthused.
His office — a work in itself with all sorts of papers, magazines and baseball paraphernalia — reflects his interest in things outdoors. Not the confines of a desk person.
Reaching for a booklet, he pointed to the brightly colored water playthings – spouts, umbrellas, lemon drops.
"I plan to have these here by the time we get the permit," he said. Brin is awaiting a minor permit approval from Coastal Zone Management.
The present park has all sorts of slides, balancing boards, a ball court, swings and about all a child could want, set off by the natural wood gazebo, which, Brin said, also came from his favorite magazine.
"It's going to be a fun park," he said.
It will surely get the tourists' attention as they leave the airport only to be greeted by a windmill and a giant umbrella spouting water – a provocative sight to start a new adventure.
