THUNDER BAY -- An outdoor waterslide park is among ideas under consideration for the future of Chippewa Park.
The friends of Chippewa Park launched a survey on Friday to accompany its visioning exercise and seek public input.
The survey asks for impressions of the existing wildlife exhibit and the carousel but it also proposes re-purposing part of the park to construct a water park on the edge of Lake Superior.
Friends of Chippewa board of directors president Lorraine Lortie-Krawczuk.said amusement rides and nature have always co-existed on the site and while its feasibility would depend on cost, a water park would modernize the attraction.
"It's about bringing a different part of the population out," she said.
"We have to make sure it's feasible but we also have to make sure there's an interest. If we can increase tourism by having something to offer there, people might take the opportunity to stop and camp. if people are going cross-country, it might increase the change that they choose to stop there."
The survey also asks whether Thunder Bayites would support a permanent structure to house the historic carousel.Every autumn, the carousel is dismantled for storage and in the process of preserving it, it's beginning to break down.
The survey is determining whether there's a public appetite for refurbishing its pieces and constructing a structure that would protect it from the elements.
"The idea batted around, nothing is concrete, is that it would be a permanent structure somewhere where the walls can be brought up and be taken out," Lortie-Krawczuk said.
None of those ideas should interfere with the serenity of camping, hiking or bird-watching, Lortie-Krawczuk insists.
When it comes to the natural aspects of Chippewa Park, she would like to see the existing wildlife exhibit become a nature sanctuary that could host education sessions and tours.
"Being a sanctuary, all sorts of animals could become available to us," she said.
"The facilities would have to be upgraded, theres' a higher level of staff that would be needed but having someone out there to do the tours and bring school groups out there and talk about the animals, we don't have that right now. it's a self-guided tour."
