Trailhead Park’s Splash Pad in Winter Haven, FL has provided significant value to the city’s community over the past four years. It’s become a popular spot for families to cool off in the hot Florida sun and spend time together. This 4,200 sq ft splash pad opened originally with a concrete finish, but the facility unfortunately experienced several slip and fall incidents on the slick surface. With calls from the community to improve the safety of the splash pad, the City of Winter Haven applied a popular non-skid rubberized paint to try and reduce the number of injuries. Unfortunately, the issue persisted, and the city began to research options that would yield better results so they wouldn’t have to redo the surfacing a fourth or fifth time.
Life Floor’s East Coast Regional Manager, MaryAnn Eifert, reached out to the City of Winter Haven via FRPA’s E-Connect after learning about the splash pad’s chronic slip and fall issue and introduced them to Life Floor. The city was most excited to learn about the product’s built-in slip-resistance since it had the potential to solve many of their chronic slip and fall issues. It was also happy to hear about its certification to NSF/ANSI Standard 50, which provides unbiased testing results of Life Floor’s performance.
The City of Winter Haven had a set budget that they wanted to stay within, so MaryAnn presented our pre-established High Tide Theme paired with our economically-friendly square pattern 301. This combination simulates the blue tones of a seascape, offering a simple layout while still allowing for limitless play. By choosing this option, the city was able to stay within budget and provide Life Floor as a safety solution to the Winter Haven community. Since Life Floor is truly one of its kind being the only splash pad safety surfacing certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 50, and with Inside Edge as its certified North American Installation Partner, the facility staff was able to present this plan to city council as a sole-source bid. By using the sole-source bid model, the city was able to save more time and money by eliminating the need to bid out other products since Life Floor’s certification and benefits demonstrate that it is both unique and superior to concrete and other surfacing options.
“They gave us a design and a quote, it was in our budget and met all of our needs.”
Once the improved surface was installed, over 1000 community members showed their support via Facebook and celebrated the City of Winter Haven for addressing such a prominent issue in the community by installing a safety surface at the Trailhead Park Splash Pad. The Winter Haven Sun then picked up the story and featured the splash pad on the front page of the newspaper in their article Upgraded Splash Pad Reopens To Smiles.
The city staff themselves were also pleased with the results. Andy Palmer, the city’s Parks Planning & Strategic Initiatives Manager, stated how pleased he was with the entire process.
“Not only does it look awesome but it meets many criteria of fall and slip resistance ... we’ve gotten nothing but great feedback from the product and that we did something to address our slip and fall issues.”
Palmer was also impressed with the professionalism and friendliness of Inside Edge’s installation crew.
“We work with many specialty item crews such as playground and pour-in-place rubber installers. The crew who installed the Life Floor was one of the best we have seen. They were professional, friendly, clean, and the workmanship [was] exceptional.”
We’d like to extend a special thank you to the City of Winter Haven for your business and collaboration in transforming your parks into a safer and more playful space for your community. Thank you as well to the Inside Edge Safety Surfaces team for your continued excellence in installation and for your commitment to Life Floor’s mission!
