We have a little bit of updates on the Sioux Falls Whitewater Park Project. Since last discussed on here there have been a couple of changes to the proposal.
First, the location has been narrowed down to one spot unless another one reveals itself. The spot we want the designers to put most of their focus on is at Lien Park located northeast of Downtown on Cliff Avenue on The Big Sioux River. Lien Park has the highest flow throughout the year in the Sioux Falls area; which makes it an ideal spot to use the Sioux Falls Whitewater Park all season long. The water level for a good park should be at least 250 CFS and if you check out the past 60 year flow rate at USGS you can see that you get above 250 CFS between the end of February all the way to the beginning of December. The park also provides a good location for parking. Currently it is a gravel parking lot with small barriers but can be expanded if needed. The park could easily be set up for events because the banks are a clean slate and option for hanging slalom gates are available and room to build built in seating. Events could be hosted such as a slalom race, 8-ball Sprint, soap box races, and freestyle Lien Park is also a good starting point for a lot of kayaker flowing south towards Brandon and farther down the river so it would be a good location to put a canoe/kayak ramp at the end of the park. The best part of Lien Park is that is parallel to the bike trail which would make it easy for paddlers, stand up paddlers, tubers, swimmers, and rip boarders to walk back up to the beginning of the course.
Other parts of the river in the Sioux Falls area didn’t have enough flow throughout the paddling season, DENR opposed certain contaminated areas, and area didn’t work with Parks and Recreation for room for events or parking.
The second change to the proposal is we also got another estimate for a designer to come in kayak the river to see where the best option is, design park, fill out proper permits, hold investor and stockholder meeting, and price out the whitewater park. River Restoration is a well-known name in the whitewater industry. They have down work in Elkader Iowa at their whitewater park and they are working on design for Manchester Iowa Whitewater Park.
More updates on the Sioux Falls Whitewater Park:
A group has been formed as the Board of Directors for The Sioux Falls Whitewater Park, The Sioux Falls Whitewater Park has non-profit status EIN Tax ID, and Sioux Falls Whitewater Park has one more application to fill out to be non-profit status in South Dakota. We will also be starting fundraising for the designer to come in to do their conceptual design. The fundraising will start once the paperwork is submitted and approved by the state. Fundraising will consist of free will donations and possible raffle.
The group is also looking for logo design and a web page to be built. If anyone is interested they can contact us on Facebook or email at siouxfallswhitewaterpark@hotmail.com
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