By next spring, Middle Georgia could have two water parks

As one Middle Georgia water park brings its first full season to a close, construction of a “regional” water park is set to begin later this week.

About 35,000 people visited Sandy Beach Water Park at Lake Tobesofkee in Bibb County this year after it opened for the season in May, said Jeff Franklin, president of Spirit of America Theme Park and Development LLC. The park’s debut was July 3, 2015.

Although Franklin estimated in May that the park would draw about 70,000 people, he admitted “I was dreaming.” However, it was a good turnout at the still-new park.

“Realistically, (35,000) was a really good number,” he said. “Several days, we had 1,000 people in the park. ... But we would like to get 70,000 — the park has room for it.”

Sandy Beach will close for the season at the end of the day Monday.

Meanwhile, after about three years of planning and more than eight renditions, a groundbreaking ceremony for Rigby’s Water World is set for 4 p.m. Thursday on Karl Drive off Ga. 96 in Warner Robins, adjacent to Rigby’s Entertainment Center, said owner Steve Rigby. Afterward, a reception will be held in Rigby’s Oyster Bar.

The planning phase is now finished. “It’s already in production and it’s a done deal,” he said.

Owners of both parks said they serve a different customer base, have a different price point and that there are enough people who enjoy water parks for both to do well.

Visitors this year to Sandy Beach Water Park were able enjoy the addition of a new 100,000-gallon wave pool.

“It was the favorite,” said Franklin, a Marietta businessman. “Everybody liked to get in a tube and get rocked around. ... The waves are really relaxing. We have several different wave patterns. ... People really liked it.”

The wave pool was added to the facility with two 27-foot-high water slides that are 150 to 200 feet long, an 82-foot-long swimming pool and a 3-foot-deep, 600-foot-long lazy river. Also, there is a splash pad for children, six pavilions and concessions.

The park sits on about 8 acres. Franklin has a 20-year lease on the site with the Macon-Bibb County government, which agreed to use bond money to pay for nearly $250,000 in public improvements for the park.

Entry to the water park is $12.50 for adults and $10 for children. In addition, the county charges a gate fee of $3 a person. The fee seems to irritate some visitors to the water park, even though Franklin agreed to the fee is in his contract with the county.

“We would like the Macon-Bibb government to come up with an alternative for their parking fee,” he said, such as a buying a summer pass or charging each car a set amount.

The concession stand, which was new this year, “really did well,” he said. “It was a good revenue generator. ... We got some really good people ... and we had no turnover.”

Next year, Franklin said the park may focus on attracting more groups.

“There were 84 groups that came this year,” he said.

Franklin is working on a plan that would bring people out to the facility during the offseason if he determines it’s something people would support.

He’s thinking about adding inflatable domes over the pools to create a heated pool area and offer swimming lessons.

“We determined during the course of this season there was a need to teach a lot of kids how to swim,” he said. “A lot of kids were using life jackets ... and we noticed that. They should be drown-proof. ... The underlying motivation for our part is community outreach and to see what we could do to make our customers happy.”

In addition to children, swim lessons could also be available for teens and adults. And the wave pool, which has a ramp entrance, would be ideal to offer aerobic classes for seniors, he said.

“We are going to have to do a lot of legwork to see if people will respond to it,” he said.

The classes would be offered from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Swimming lessons would be about $7 for an hour lesson for eight weeks for children 3 to 5 years old, and senior aerobics would be about $4-$5 for an hour session. Franklin said he has gotten approval from the county to waive the parking fee during the off season.

Anyone interested in taking swim classes can email him at jeff.soaentertainment@gmail.com.

New park would include 65-foot-high slide

The reason Steve Rigby says it’s taken longer than expected for Rigby’s Water World to break ground is “I only get one shot at this. I want to get it right.”

It took Rigby two years to plan Rigby Entertainment Complex, which offers a multitude of games and activities, plus another 18 months to build it. He’s adding 30,000 square feet to that facility, which will add more bowling lanes, meeting rooms and a 200-seat restaurant.

In addition, he’s been approved for an 84-room hotel, although he can’t reveal yet what hotel brand it will be.

The water park is larger and has been more complicated to plan than the entertainment complex. “Once I put in a slide, I can’t move it,” he said.

Updated plans for the water park include a wave pool and 16-18 slides with different configurations. A lazy river will be about 1,600 to 1,800 linear feet long and about 14 feet wide. The theme is tropical with surfboards, palm trees, an old woody station wagon and thatch roofs.

Although Rigby said last year that he planned to build a 100-foot-high slide, the tallest side will be 68 feet high.

“The engineers wouldn’t allow (the 100-foot slide),” he said. “It was too tall.”

There will be a large structure for children and toddlers that will include spray guns, buckets and water features.

“It’s more of a regional water park. That’s what we’re going to make it into instead of just a local water park. People will come from well over two hours just to come here,” he said, basing the assessment on several studies.

The studies also showed he could expect visitation to range from 144,000 to 201,000 a season.

The cost to get into Rigby’s Water World would be higher than the Bibb County water park.

“We will have a seasonal food package, a seasonal water park pass and a walk-in gate price,” Rigby said. “And it will be in the $25 range just to walk in the gate. I’m not sure what the yearly seasonal pass will be yet.”

He was aware of the water park at Sandy Beach during his early planning stages, and he’s not concerned about the competition.

“I think it’s just going to be a benefit from the Middle Georgia area to have both of these parks here,” he said. “We will have two different price points and two different animals altogether. ... We just about doubled the size because we want it to be a regional park.”

He’s ready for the earth-moving equipment to get rolling so he can open on Mother’s Day 2017.

“I’ve been at this for three years,” he said “And when I start seeing those tractors rolling, I’ll be excited.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "By next spring, Middle Georgia could have two water parks."