A new splash pad officially opened Tuesday at Kirby Park, marking the second water play area of its kind in San Angelo.
The grand opening featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony, community attendance, and children playing in the new water feature immediately following the event.
The splash pad, located at 1401 Edmund Boulevard, will be open daily from noon to 8 p.m. and is free to the public.
The site features a recirculating water system with a 2,000-gallon underground reservoir, designed to minimize water loss in the drought-prone region. Water is filtered and sanitized through a four-step filtration and UV system. Operation is controlled by an actuator switch, allowing the system to run on demand and regulated by a master timer.
The Kirby Park splash pad was constructed by All-Tex Irrigation and Supply, LLC. Jeff Perrine, co-owner of All-Tex and co-founder of the All-Tex Irrigation Splash Pad Fund, credited the success of the project to widespread community support.
“This couldn’t have taken place without the donors that you see behind us — there are a lot of people that stepped up to the plate…a lot of people. For what reasons? For the children — it was for the kids, for the community, and I expect that what we’ve done as a community, that we’ve shown the city of San Angelo what this is valued at,” Perrine said.
Funded Entirely by Community Donations
Funding for the splash pad came entirely from private donations, with no taxpayer dollars used. More than $850,000 was raised in monetary donations, with an additional $150,000 in in-kind materials and labor, totaling over $1 million for the construction of both Kirby Park and Unidad Park splash pads.
“This is one of those projects that when people make up their mind, they want to do something, it happens,” said District 1 City Council member Tommy Hiebert during the ceremony. “It’s amazing that over 1 million dollars, when you take the actual hard dollars and the in-kind donations — over a million dollars were raised for two splash pads here in San Angelo. To me, that says, ‘public-private partnerships work when somebody wants something to happen and they have a plan to see it happen.’”
First Splash Pad Opened at Unidad Park
The first of the two splash pads opened in July 2024 at Unidad Park, located at 3245 Vista Del Arroyo. That facility operates daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The City of San Angelo has agreed to maintain both splash pad locations after construction.
How the Splash Pad Projects Began
Construction of the splash pads was first proposed in 2022, when All-Tex Irrigation began fundraising efforts with the help of the San Angelo Area Foundation. All-Tex contributed $100,000 to initiate the effort. Equipment was purchased in December 2023, and installation of the first splash pad was scheduled at Unidad Park in early summer 2024. Fundraising then shifted toward the second location at Kirby Park.
Since the region frequently faces drought conditions, the splash pads were designed to use recirculating systems to reduce water consumption. The water loss is considered minimal, with the main sources of loss being wind, heat, and heavy use.
The projects align with the City of San Angelo’s long-term park planning. According to Parks and Recreation Director Carl White, the San Angelo’s 2020 Parks & Recreation Open Space Master Plan, updated in 2020, identified splash pads as the most requested amenity desired by residents in local parks.
