Santee water park, rec complex on track for 2015 completion

Santee recreation complex

SOURCE: ORANGEBURG COUNTY
Orangeburg County’s plans call for Santee’s recreation complex to have a aquatic center, basketball courts, baseball fields, a soccer field, a bocce field and recreational pavilions.

Residents and visitors alike will have access to all of the amenities of an aquatic park and recreation ball fields in Santee by Memorial Day weekend in 2015, county and town officials announced Thursday.

Crews have already started preparing land for the $5 million complex on Bass Drive next to the Santee Conference Center.

The project’s contractor, H.G. Reynolds Company, “is on schedule and under budget,” Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said during a press conference held at the Orangeburg County Administrative Centre.

The recreation complex will include an aquatic center, basketball courts, baseball fields, a soccer field, a bocce field and recreational pavilions.

The park is being built as part of a partnership between Orangeburg County and the Town of Santee. It’s funded through the countywide 1 percent capital projects sales tax, also known as the “penny tax.”

Although the YMCA hasn’t officially entered into a contract to manage the aquatic center’s operations, Young said talks between the county and the Y are underway.

Young also said the aquatic park’s features will not be a duplication of the YMCA park in Orangeburg.

He stressed that the citizens and visitors will have a variety of options by using either park.

“This project will address livability,” Young said, “because with the county and what our pursuits are with economic development, a lot of times we lose the other areas because of what amenities we don’t have.”

Young said the addition of the water park and the recreational amenities will help “attract industries to the area.”

Employees from industries coming from larger cities are “accustomed to having water parks and recreation facilities,” he said.

Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright Sr. said, “When you look at the park, it’s not just for recreation alone – it has a three-prong effect. It helps bring up the tax base, helps bring industry and it also helps provide recreation for the people.”

Santee Mayor Donnie Hilliard said he and County Councilman Johnny Ravenell have been advocating for recreation opportunities for the Santee area for a number of years.

Ravenell said he hopes a new hotel will “be erected in an adjacent area” as a result of what the officials said the aquatic park and recreation center will bring to Santee.

Young also noted that the water park will likely spur an influx of visitors when it first opens, much like the YMCA’s Aquatic Park in Orangeburg did a few years back.

“Now it’s leveled off,” Young said.

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