West Bend staff present draft rules for Westbury Bank Aqua Park, including age limit and ticketing plan

City of West Bend Parks, Recreation and Forestry staff presented a first draft of operating policies for the Westbury Bank Aqua Park during the Park and Recreation Commission meeting on Feb. 27.

The draft lays out rules staff plan to use when the Aqua Park opens for summer 2025, the first season under a seven-year naming-rights agreement with Westbury Bank. "What you have in front of you is the first draft of the policies that we are hoping to implement at the Westbury Bank Aqua Park," Ryan, Parks, Recreation and Forestry staff, told the commission.

The draft proposes the following key points: - Minimum age: Aqua Park users must be age 6 or older at time of use; that is the same age standard used in 2024. - Personal flotation devices (PFDs): All Aqua Park users must wear a City of West Bend–issued PFD regardless of swimming ability; private or personal lifejackets would not be permitted. - Waivers: Minors ages 6–17 must have a parent- or guardian-signed waiver on file; waivers completed for the 2025 season would be retained for the season. - Session structure and capacity: A typical operating day would include four 2-hour sessions. Each session would have a maximum capacity of 140 people in the Aqua Park; staff proposed reserving about 70 of those tickets for online sales and holding 70 for in-person walk-up purchases. - Online sales and redemption: Online tickets would be sold through the city’s WebTrack registration system, available for purchase through 10 a.m. Central on the day of a session; each online ticket would contain a unique barcode and could be redeemed by printing the ticket or by showing the PDF or confirmation email at the beach house for scanning. Staff said refunds to the original payment card for online purchases would be issued within five business days of a cancellation. - Special-event dates and full online sales: On dates where staff expect very high demand — staff named July 4 and the city mud run as examples — the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department may sell all available Aqua Park tickets online and suspend in-person sales for those dates. - Punch passes and discounts: Punch passes sold before the season would be for in-person use only. Volume discounts were proposed (a $1 discount per ticket for groups of 10 or more; $2 per ticket for groups of 20 or more), with the discount applying only when all tickets in the purchase are for the same date. - Weather and refunds: Staff proposed that the department reserve the right to not open the Aqua Park (or to close it) if the projected temperature is less than or equal to 70°F; lightning observed or thunder heard would trigger immediate removal of patrons and a 30-minute wait from the last sighting/hearing before reopening. If the Aqua Park does not open for the entire day because of weather, prepaid online passes would be fully refunded. If the Aqua Park closes during a 2-hour session, staff proposed a partial-refund regime: if cancellation occurs within the first 60 minutes, a refund of $4 per ticket would be issued (staff noted an adjusted or percentage approach would apply for group discounts and said those numbers would be edited in the policy). If cancellation occurs after the first 60 minutes, no refund would be issued, according to the draft.

Why it matters: The policy would formalize how West Bend manages capacity, safety equipment and weather-related refunds for a new revenue-generating summer attraction. The commission discussed clarity and longevity of language: one commissioner recommended removing vendor or platform names (for example, Square) and specific dollar amounts from the long-lived policy so the document would not require revision every time a vendor or fee changes. Staff said WebTrack and other transaction links will be accessible from the city website, and that the draft is expected to return to the commission for additional review after this season.

Commission discussion and clarifications focused on communication, enforcement, and operational details. Commissioners asked about exceptions for people bringing their own PFDs (staff said prior year experience indicated most conversations were civil and the department prohibits uncertified personal PFDs for liability reasons), whether the temperature threshold would be an absolute cutoff (staff said each instance would be handled case-by-case and financial viability could keep the park open in some borderline conditions), and how group discounts and in-person purchase allocations would interact with online sales.

Staff indicated some rules and numbers in the draft will be refined. "There's a pretty good chance we're gonna, after this season, have this policy in front of the commission again for some review and adjustment," Ryan said.

Ending: The draft was presented for feedback; the commission did not record a formal vote on the policy at the Feb. 27 meeting. Staff said they plan additional edits and would bring the policy back to the commission for further review.