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‘It looks like summer is getting back to normal’

Down at City Park in Kelowna, people are enjoying the beach as Wibit play structure sets to open
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Kelowna Wibit park operator Rylie Gallagher (left) at the newly set-up Wibit park in Penticton, alongside local staff. The company is setting up in Kelowna today. - Image: Dustin Godfrey/Black Press

Despite worries that high waters had ruined any chance of opening Kelowna’s Wibit floating play structure, operators are in Kelowna today setting up its play structure at City Park for a July 1 opening.

“The flood barriers have been removed and there’s lots of people on the beach,” said owner Randy Gallagher from City Park where he was setting up the play area. “It looks like summer is getting back to normal.”

Gallagher said after missing the early part of the season in Kelowna and Penticton, all three of the company’s Wibit play structures will be up and running as of this weekend with the Kelowna opening Saturday, a new play-park in Peachland that opened Wednesday as well as one in Penticton already open.

“One aspect of our business that we have lost out on this year is last year we had a quite a few school groups come down for their end-of-the-year school parties,” said Gallagher. “So that business has been non-existent for us this year.”

But otherwise the parks don’t tend to get too much business in June, anyway, according to Randy’s son, Rylie, who runs the Kelowna park.

“If we install earlier, we find it’s fairly slow until the school holidays begin,” he said.

With the July 1 opening, the company dodged a bullet that claimed the Canada Day fireworks set for that evening, which were cancelled due to high waters on the lake.

The Gallaghers said they typically open up the Kelowna Wibit park in the middle of June, which means about a two-week delayed opening if the park opens over the long weekend.

Gallagher said it would take most of the day Thursday to set the structure up before staff training on Friday and a Saturday opening.