Ready to Make a Splash
Water park owners realizing their dream of creating Dells experience in Yorkville

June 22, 2008
By ROWENA VERGARA

YORKVILLE -- Every summer, Randy Witt would pack up the car and drive his family to water parks across the country. Upon their arrival, his wife and children would head to the slides and splash buckets, while Witt, armed with a notebook and pen, would get to work.

He would listen in on conversations at the food court about what families were eating and not eating. He would request one-on-one talks with water park owners and developers with his family in tow. And he'd sit on the sidelines at Noah's Ark for hours, mesmerized by the twists and turns of every ride.

"We go in and buy tickets, and I'd get lost in my own little world," said Witt. The questioning and dreaming to build his own water park went on for 20 years inside his mind, and almost stayed there completely. But four years ago, Witt partnered with someone who shared his same dream of a massive water park in the Chicagoland area. On Saturday, it will all become a reality.

Witt, of Hanover Park, and brother-in-law Scott Melby, a Bartlett native, will open the 45-acre Raging Waves water park at Route 47 and Galena Road in Yorkville, a growing town that's excited to welcome the 3,000 or so daily park visitors. Yorkville does not have an estimate on expected revenue from the park, but it will receive a portion of revenue generated from a 5 percent admissions tax.

It will be the largest water park to open in Illinois, owners say. It rivals Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, which includes nine components and one of the largest interactive water playgrounds in the country. It also competes with Magic Waters in Rockford, which has been around at least since the 1980s, and includes raft rides, body slides and tube slides.

Raging Waves has 10 major components including 16 water slides from five towers. There are family raft rides, speed slides, coaster tube slides, slides from as high as 72 feet, as well as a wave pool and a lazy river, for the mild water park enthusiasts. Factor in driving time and distance, and Raging Waves is a 60- mile drive from Chicago instead of a 200-mile drive from Chicago to Wisconsin Dells, a destination throngs of Chicagoans venture to every summer.

Surrounded by water parks at nearly every border of Illinois, the brothers by marriage are the latest to give the outdoor water park business a shot in a state they say is thirsty for it. "Our research shows there's real demand for a first-class water park in the western suburbs of Chicago," said Melby, who is the financial brains behind the business. "We don't have to educate the public about what a large water park is about. They know that from Wisconsin Dells. But people are used to driving there. We're just bringing what they're used to into their back yard."

'Family-friendly, safer, cleaner'

In the water park world, there's Palace Entertainment and Busch Entertainment, as well as Six Flags and Disney. And then there's independent owners like Witt and Melby -- two dads with growing children, who "used to dream about doing really cool things in the community," Melby said.

"We're doing something that draws families together in a society where families are getting pulled apart," he said. Because they don't have the backing of a large corporation, Witt and Melby hope to compete by running their park differently.

In terms of cleanliness, the park has eight filtration systems, one for every ride. If one ride is not working properly, the entire park won't shut down, explained Witt, whose expertise is in residential and commercial construction.

To stay true to the family focus, Raging Waves will not sell alcohol. And in a city like Yorkville, where water and energy conservation top the City Council's list of goals, Raging Waves will also recycle its water for an irrigation system. Owners say the annual water usage at the park is equivalent to the water usage of 34 single-family homes.

Cooking oil from food vendors also will be reused by a company to create biodiesel fuel. Witt's 20 years of research also led him to an exceptional staff of water park managers and staffers. The staff has 100-plus years of development experience combined, owners say.

General manager Mike Fijas, for example, has run water parks throughout Atlanta, Las Vegas and Orlando. Raging Waves' contractor for the water rides and slides, Xpress Construction, also built rides for Disney's Typhoon Lagoon.

"We have no choice," Witt said. "We have to be family-friendly, safer and cleaner. When it's your own, you have to take a lot of pride in it," said Witt, who gets excited just talking about the intricate components of the project. "For 20 years I've been chasing after this," Witt said.

Roadblocks, unexpected turns

Getting Raging Waves off the ground wasn't as easy as they envisioned. Witt and Melby, operating under Lundmark Group, spent 17 months pitching a water park in Sugar Grove. Residents and village officials rejected it after three heated public hearings, calling it a huge tourist attraction in a quiet town.

"We were greatly disappointed by the way we were treated down there (in Sugar Grove), where it's completely opposite in Yorkville," Melby said. By June 2006, Lundmark Group presented a plan for a similar park in Yorkville. Residents and officials praised it.

But since the park's approval by the Yorkville City Council, its opening date has been delayed three times because of the unpredictable weather. Meanwhile, union workers picketed the site, claiming Lundmark Group was paying below-standard wages. None of this, however, stopped 850 or so people from buying season passes well before the park's opening.

The delays haven't at all changed the opinions of city officials, especially Yorkville Mayor Valerie Burd. "Once it's open, this will all smooth itself out," Burd said. "To have something to come to our community that employs 300 people is just wonderful. We're 100 percent behind them and supportive."

Though the park has missed its projected Memorial Day opening, owners say they would be pleased with a first-year attendance of at least 250,000 people. And when asked about why they took the ambitious move of opening Illinois' largest water park, Melby said, "It's like that saying, go big or go home. You've got to do a first-class park because people know either the Dells or their (local) aquatic centers. You've got to do it big."