{"id":381834,"date":"2026-08-26T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381834\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:30:08","slug":"ready-set-splash-lakes-park-splash-pads-reopen-in-lee-county-after-hurricane-ian-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381834\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready, set, splash! Lakes Park splash pads reopen in Lee County after Hurricane Ian | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 After nearly four years, the splash pads at Lakes Park<\/a> in Lee County are officially back open\u2014and they\u2019re even better than they were before Hurricane Ian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lee County held a ribbon-cutting Wednesday to celebrate the reopening of the splash pads, which were destroyed when Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida in September 2022.<\/p>\n

And with the heat index hovering near triple digits, the timing couldn’t be much better.<\/p>\n

The more than $2.6 million project completely rebuilt the splash pad area, including new concrete splash pads, interactive water features, shaded areas and play spaces.<\/p>\n

But getting to the reopening took years.<\/p>\n

The county says saltwater and sand intrusion from Hurricane Ian caused so much damage to the systems that nothing was salvageable. The entire splash pad had to be replaced.<\/p>\n

For about three years, the area sat empty\u2014fenced off and abandoned\u2014while the county waited for funding to rebuild.<\/p>\n

That funding finally came through in 2025, when the county received $2.6 million through a fund from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n

Demolition began last August, and a little more than a year later, the splash pads are once again ready for families.<\/p>\n

And the county didn’t simply rebuild what was there before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials say the goal was to make the area better and more resilient.<\/p>\n

The new splash pads feature interactive water elements, shaded areas and play spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project also includes an advanced lightning detection system designed to monitor weather and automate safety protocols.<\/p>\n

The infrastructure was also rebuilt using stronger materials and updated engineering designed to better withstand future storms.<\/p>\n

Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass said Lakes Park is more than just a place to cool off. People use the park throughout the week for biking, walking, picnics, family celebrations and other gatherings.<\/p>\n

Now, the splash pad is another part of the park families can enjoy again.<\/p>\n

And after nearly four years of waiting, there are plenty of happy little feet ready to get wet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 After nearly four years, the splash pads at Lakes Park in Lee County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325,115],"class_list":["post-381834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}