Splash Down waterpark overcomes adversity to reopen

Toddlers in swim suits bounced around Monday in something less than a run, but more than a skip. Grins stretched ear to ear as they climbed over each other to get back on the water slides.

Splash Down waterpark has resumed adventures in Spokane Valley, sandwiched in between East Mission Park and Interstate 90.

The reopening of the park, which had been shuttered since 2020, was delayed as new owner Brandon Olson wrestled with 40-year-old pipes, what he called gang graffiti and vandals who tied a rope to a heavy metal sewer lid to use it as a wrecking ball, to pump new life into the park where he spent countless afternoons as a boy.

“It took a lot longer than we initially thought,” said Olson, who had hoped to open in June. “To see these little kids’ smiles, that’s everything.”

Behind every happy youngster were countless hours of maintenance, plumbing, cleanup and repair that then turned into an insurance nightmare. Olson said he has to carry two lines of coverage, one for the park itself and the other for the customers.

The day he closed the deal to buy the park, the insurance company dropped him, he said.

Just before he signed on ownership of the park, Olson said he fired up the water system to see if it worked. Eight pipes burst. But, he could see the problems and fix them.

“It’s hard to sink a bunch of money into something when you don’t own it,” he said.

Hours, weekends, weeks of labor were needed to wrestle the park from three years of neglect. For instance, cottontails had grown so large near one of the small child slides that Olson used a chainsaw to cut them down.

“We had all kinds of dead heads” in the trees, he said. “It took all kinds of landscaping just to make it safe. It was unbelievable.”

After taking a video tour of all the facilities, Olson sweet-talked and convinced an insurance company, which specializes in facilities like Splash Down, to again provide coverage, albeit at a much higher premium.

He then had to convince inspectors with the city of Spokane Valley, which owns the ground on which the park sits, to renew the lease.

Everything finally came together and the family planned to open July 24. They fired up the system, but one of two massive turbines that provide the water pressure that fuels the park snapped a drive shaft.

Olson got help from Wheeler Industries Inc., of Spokane Valley, whose technicians fabricated some parts. Other parts were flown to Spokane and the crews from Specialty Pump Services Inc., of Spokane, assembled the parts back into a working turbine.

The problem was fixed by Thursday.

The waterpark opened over the weekend, but even its opening on Monday was delayed after a manifold that directs water to one of the slides opened a couple holes, sending a small river of water along one of the slides.

“I knew there would be some kinks in the system,” Olson said. “We fixed everything we visually could see.”

Splashdown was born

Bill and Ruth Bleasner opened Splash Down in 1983. They sold it in the mid-2000s and reacquired it in 2018, but Bill and Ruth both died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bleasner children then tried to sell it.

Olson, who has worked the past 15 years as a signalman for Union Pacific Railroad, said he remembered driving by and seeing the idled waterpark. As a child, his stepmother would drop him off at the facility, which essentially served as his official babysitter, he said.

All those summer visits allowed him to develop a relationship with Bill Bleasner.

“I made some phone calls. For two weeks, I couldn’t get (buying the park) out of my head,” he said.

The Bleasner children didn’t want to operate the park. Olson contacted the trustee of the family and started negotiating.

They set a time to talk about the purchase. Olson arrived to find out two other potential buyers, who had connections to theme parks in Florida and California, had beat him to the meeting.

The family told him that Bill Bleasner’s “dying wish was that he wanted it to be family-run,” Olson said. “I’m happy to keep it family operated.”

His son, Clayton, 18, sells admissions, and 16-year-old Brandon also helps out.

Clayton Olson said they had about 300 people in line for the delayed start on Monday. The park charges $20 for adults and $15 for kids who are 48 inches or shorter.

On family nights – Tuesdays and Thursdays – the park will offer $10 admission for anyone from 4 to 8 p.m. Otherwise, the park is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. other days and admission is $20 for adults.

“A lot of people are happy to have it open,” Clayton said. “When I was growing up, this WAS the place to be. It’s the only waterpark in Spokane.”

Ellie Chidia, 9, of Athol, had just made a run on one of the big slides.

“I think a lot of people enjoy it and have fun together here,” Ellie said.

She was accompanied by her mother’s best friend, Heather Heath, 44, of Spirit Lake. She just happens to be Brandon Olson’s ex-wife and she, too, spent her childhood at the waterpark.

“This was THE place to be,” Heath said. The new owners “did a good job of making everything look nice again.”

Robyn Maxwell, 54, of Spokane Valley, brought three of her grandchildren – Jaxson, Mikinzie and Maddison – to the park. Even though she’s driven by the park hundreds of times, Monday was Maxwell’s first visit.

“They are having a blast,” Maxwell said of her grandchildren. “It’s been a fun day.

“My only complaint is the heat and the walk back up” to the top of the park.