Mayor wants deserted water park demolished

RECORD PHOTO BY AUSTIN GRABISH

Skinners Wet 'n Wild Water Park in Lockport has been closed for 10 years. 

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record 

What was once seven storeys of wet and wild fun could soon be dried up and be demolished.

St. Andrews Mayor George Pike said the now defunct Skinners Wet ‘n Wild Water Park in Lockport has become both an eyesore and a safety hazard.

“Structurally it’s not sound anymore,” Pike said.

The water park, which was at one point Manitoba’s second largest, closed a decade ago, and now efforts are being made by the RM of St. Andrews and the Red River Planning District to have the slides taken down for good.

“We have it on our list of things to work with the Red River Planning Board,” Pike said.

“There is issues there.”

Pike said the RM and Planning District recently found the owner of the property, where the slides are on.

He said the site has changed hands several times in the last few years.

“We had trouble up till about two months ago finding the actual owner,” Pike said.

He said the new legal owner of the slides is somewhere in B.C. and attempts are being made to contact him or her.

“We’re searching everything that we can at this point,” Pike said.

“So we are looking at it and we’re trying to get a hold of the owner to see what he is or (isn’t) going to do and then once we get a hold of him and confirm that we will take action one way or another,” Pike said.

The mayor said he wants to have the waterslides removed as soon as possible.

He said the RM of St. Andrews is prepared to step in and take action if the owner doesn’t remove the slides in a timely fashion.

“We can serve papers for them and then we can have it removed ourselves,” Pike said. 

“We want to get it cleared up one way or another.”

Pike said the RM has been trying to get the slides removed for some time. 

“It has been a file for a while,” Pike said.

In 2013 the Winnipeg Free Press reported the slides were slated to be taken down by that year’s end, but that never happened.

At the time then St. Andrews Mayor Don Forfar cautioned time was running out.

The Skinners Wet ‘n Wild Water Park closed down in 2005.

The Record asked the Red River Planning District for comment but didn’t receive comment by press deadline. 

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition February 11, 2015 p.9