A new water park being built on the northeast side of Sioux City will not be finished for this summer season, as officials are saying Siouxland Splash will instead have a 2026 opening.
Water park officials are citing higher inflation costs and the uncertainty of materials for the facility, other metro media organizations are reporting Monday.
Work by the Frontline Development LLC business to build Siouxland Splash at a projected cost of $7 million began in fall 2024 after a groundbreaking. The plot of 10 acres for the water park was purchased from the city of Sioux City, and the city has spent some money with water infrastructure and roads.
There is currently no private waterpark in Sioux City, while within 100 miles there are such facilities in Storm Lake and Sioux Falls.
*Additionally, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed three notable bills into law late Friday.
One requires public, private and charter schools to teach about fetal development starting in fifth grade.
Human growth and development and health classes in grades five through 12 will have to show a video that, quote, “depicts the humanity of the unborn child.”
The new law also prohibits the use of videos and other educational materials provided by groups that perform, promote, or refer patients for abortions. Democrats raised concerns that this will bar health classes from using scientifically accurate materials from prominent medical research institutions.
Republican lawmakers have said the law will teach children to value life and is meant to influence their future decisions about pregnancy and abortion.
A second new measure directs the state to seek federal permission to establish Medicaid work requirements.
Under the bill, people in Iowa’s Medicaid expansion program without disabilities between the ages of 19 and 65 would have to work at least 80 hours a month to keep their health coverage.
A third measure signed by Reynolds means that firefighters and police officers on the state’s municipal retirement system can now receive disability and death benefits if they’re diagnosed with any type of cancer. In the past, employees had to have one of 14 listed cancers to qualify for accidental death and disability payments.
*A major plan is in the works to enhance a recreational area in the Loess Hills of western Iowa.
Crescent Hill at Hitchcock is located north of Council Bluffs. A ski hill has been in operation there since the 1960s, and the area also includes a 1,500-acre nature preserve.
Jeff Franco, the executive director of Pottawattamie County Conservation, says work is underway to raise at least $25 million dollars for the project that could include a new tubing hill, cabins, an amphitheater, and plenty of public spaces.
Franco says the upgrades could take five to ten years to complete and will be funded without using taxpayer money.
*In other news, Iowa’s historical journal is looking for a new publisher after having a home within the state government for 163 years.
A spokesperson for the Department of Administrative Services says there isn’t enough staff to maintain the Annals of Iowa.
Iowa State University history professor Pamela Riney-Kehrberg has been an editorial consultant for the journal for at least 20 years. She says she doesn’t understand the decision to cut the Annals – it just needs one person to edit it, and it “basically pays for itself in that the cost of memberships and subscriptions.”
The department is actively searching for university partnerships to continue publishing the journal.
