Carbondale community members can look forward to taking a dip in the city’s new Super Splash Park in May 2015.

The splash park will be located on Lewis Lane within the city’s Superblock complex. The property is located between the new Carbondale Middle School and the new Carbondale Community High School.

Kathy Renfro, executive director of the Carbondale Park District, said the park will cost $3.4 million.

“The Carbondale Park District received a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in the amount of $2.5 million and we needed to raise another $900,000,” she said.

She said several community organizations already raised $700,000 via fundraisers.

Renfro said the park will have two pools. One will be a leisure pool consisting of a playground and splash features for children. The other is an eight-lane competition pool.

She said there will be a lazy river and competition pool with a one-meter long diving board. At the deepest, the competition pool will be 12 feet deep and the leisure pool will be 3 feet deep.

Renfro said the park is estimated to create 75 new summer jobs.

Renfro said the project has been in the works for years.

“Then it got picked up by the Human Relations Commission in 2004 and they created the Carbondale Aquatic Center Advisory Committee, which is now known as the Splash Committee.”

Renfro said the Splash Committee came under the direction of the Carbondale Park District in 2005. The Carbondale Park District mailed out more than 8,500 surveys to district homes with questions to the community of an outdoor waterpark in 2006.

“88 percent of those that were returned indicated that they did want an outdoor pool,” she said. “That’s how we determined what play features we would have at the park.”

Renfro said the park will hold a maximum bather load of 1,000 people, as permitted by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“We’re super excited about it,” she said. “I think it is going to be a great place for everybody.”