PIPESTEM, WV (WOAY) – Pipestem Resort State Park’s water park has only been around for two years, making this the second summer season it would be ever open to the public.
After COVID-19, there were fears the park would close down after only being open for one summer prior. However, Pipestem has decided to keep the water park open with some precautions.
“Following all the guidelines by the CDC, our DHHR, Red Cross and such. There is a limit to the Splash Park and our Adventure Lake on how many people can be in the areas. It’s roughly 100 inside Splash bed and 100 at the lake,” a park ranger with Pipestem said.
According to Mareya Birchfield, the chief operations officer at the water park, people loved the water park last year and were hopeful that it wouldn’t close down for this summer, like many other water parks and pools have around the region.
“We just opened last year and we had a lot of success, it was very possible. And also our Facebook and our socials were blowing up with people saying are you gonna open? Are we gonna be able to come out this year,” Birchfield said.
The park has a dedicated staff member to keeping things clean and safe for use. Birchfield says they are sanitizing equipment constantly.
“We have a sanitation position. There is someone whose position is to come and sanitize everything. They sanitize each life jacket after it’s worn. They sanitize each seat after it’s been used, each paddle boat after someone goes out for a ride on the boats.”
Birchfield believes the community will be happy to see the water park return for another summer. The park is expecting to see many people this summer.
“I think the community is really happy to be able to come here and enjoy it. Now sometimes we have a little bit of push-back because sometimes we have a long waiting line. But we just want to let everybody know that we’re keeping them safe by keeping the numbers low and keeping that restricted volume here.”
