A quaint Seymour park might see major additions and improvements if the plans of the city’s parks and recreation director come to fruition.

During a recent board meeting, board member Art Juergens opened up a conversation about Westside Park, located at 920 Jackson St. He said he recently met with around 50 people at the park to discuss how little care has been given to the park that occupies a little more than a good city block over the years.

Parks and Recreation Director Stacy Findley said she had been working on some plans for the park with Chad Keithley, the city’s parks operations director.

The parks department has worked with Seymour High School’s building trades class in the past, and Findley said she inquired with Jerrell Hubbard about adding a restroom to Westside Park.

While the class is booked with projects until the end of the year, Findley said they would be willing to construct a restroom at the park in the future.

Findley told the board about her big aspirations for Westside Park after board member Bethany Rust asked what plans the department had for adding a splash pad at one of the city’s half-dozen parks.

“I would actually like to put a splash pad at Westside Park, and then a playground,” Findley said.

She said she has been speaking with different corporations about how to approach adding a splash pad and a playground to the park, but no official plans have been set in stone.

“The idea of a splash pad is that it would have an extended season so that even whenever the kids go back to school and the pool isn’t open, we would still have something open for kids because it’s still warm through September,” Findley said.

Shields Park had been discussed as a potential location for a splash pad in the past, but Findley said the area is already busy and the splash pad would require its own filtration system.

The Shields Park Pool already has two filtration systems: One for the 50-meter pool and a second for the kiddie pool.

Because splash pads are required to be located within 300 feet of a restroom, Findley said she wasn’t sure how people would be able to get to the restroom if it was constructed near the pool during the offseason.

Board member Kendra Zumhingst said in her experience as a parent, it’s difficult to manage small kids across multiple places, so Westside Park would be a good location for a splash pad.

Board President Monica Riley said she agreed adding a splash pad to Westside Park would be beneficial for the neighborhood and entire community but was concerned with how little parking is available.

Findley said she saw the park as a “blank canvas” and the project was within the department’s reach if parking was the biggest issue.

She said Westside Park would be a good location for a splash pad and playground since construction wouldn’t have to be done around other existing park structures.