The future of Schlitterbahn Water Park is uncertain as summer approaches.
There are questions about whether the park will open for the 2019 season. The water park tore down the Verruckt waterslide after the 2016 death of Caleb Schwab, 10. The rest of the park’s rides remain.
Schlitterbahn’s corporate website still lists the KCK location, but there is no place to apply for 2019 jobs at the park.
Mayor David Alvey believes the facility will come back as a water park.
“It’s a good site. It’s a good working park. I believe it will come back — not sure when or how, but I believe it’s going to,” Alvey said.
Permits from the Kansas Department of Labor for the park’s remaining 11 rides are still active until late June, and in some cases, late July.
The rides are inspected by private contractors. Kansas audited those ride inspections in May. No other state inspections are set at this time.
Schlitterbahn is part of an $80 million financial incentive package for the area, which used Kansas STAR bonds.
“You know, there is so much other economic activity tied into that STAR bond district, I think it’s a temporary decline, but nothing that is going to put the STAR bonds in jeopardy,” Alvey said.
(Read more: KMBC)