Cape Splash off to strong start this season, Jefferson Community Center seeing steady flow of visitors

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – The warm weather in the area over Memorial Day weekend and this week has brought people out to pools and water parks in groves, and Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center has had its best start to a season in years. 

“People are definitely coming out earlier in the season than they have in years past,” Aquatic Supervisor Robert Shanahan said.

In the first three days alone, the park brought in over 3,000 people. 

“Here since we’ve opened, it’s been nice. The weather’s been in the high 80s, even low 90s, and we’ve had almost 90s every day this week, and it looks like it’s going to be just as good this weekend, so I think that’s contributed to a lot of people coming out earlier in the season rather than waiting until mid-June,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan also said the park has plenty of lifeguards and staff, so they’ve been able to hit the ground running even with the large crowds. 

“We’re in a really good position staff-wise,” he said. “We’re fully staffed, and I think it’ll make the summer go by a lot better. Having fully staffed lifeguards makes everything run a lot smoother.” 

And at the newly opened Jefferson Community Center, lifeguard Elias Kyle said even with the thousands of people going to Cape Splash, the center has had its fair share of visitors. 

“We’ve had more business than I expected after Splash opened,” he said. “I expected that everybody would just go to Cape Splash and nobody would really show up here, but we have probably like two or three families a day, so it’s not bad.” 

“And that warm, even hot, weather is expected to continue, so there’s plenty of time for you to get your splash on.