Bubbaworld

The southeast corner of the Tulsa Fairgrounds is dominated by the big tower that supports the Flumes and the Silver Bullet, the two tallest water slides in Big Splash Water Park.

According to Oklahoma State Department of Labor which inspects water parks, when its inspectors examined Big Splash during a “dry inspection” last December, the inspectors found that the tops of wooden beams in the tower were rotting.

According to the Department of Labor, the operators of Big Splash Water Park were put on notice that the rotting wood must be replaced before the park opened for the season in 2008.

Memorial Day 2008 came and found Big Splash open for business.

The inspectors from the Department of Labor came back for a “wet inspection” on June 3 and reportedly discovered to their horror that the rotting wood had not been replaced. The state shut the rides down immediately.

On June 18th the tower and its two slides were reinspected after repairs were completed and both were allowed to reopen.

Big Splash manager Amber Beck speaking about the shut-down of the park’s two biggest attractions said, “After the storm we had here in midtown they were closed and so we’ve had some repairs done, some beams replaced, some platforms replaced and everything is better than new.”

When questioned about the state report noting the dangerous situation with the rotting beams and the recent shut-down order from the state, Beck refused further comment.

According to Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields and the State Department of Labor the folks at Big Splash put peoples lives at risk by reopening the water park without repairing the rotten support beams and they should know as just last year they got into the water park inspection business after the Master Blaster, another water slide at Big Splash Water Park, collapsed, sending an 11-year-old girl into a safety net below.

The basic facts are not in question.

In December 2007 state inspectors found the rotting wooden beams at Big Splash and notified the park owners/operators that they must be replaced before the start of the 2008 season. Now, the state says that the owners/operators of the park ignored that notice and opened the park anyhow. It was only after the state shut down the park’s two biggest attractions that Big Splash acted and completed in a couple of weeks that which it would not do in the five months or so between December 2007 and May 2008.

That the folks at Big Splash were, according to the state, content to put at risk the lives of their patrons could and should give those patrons cause for alarm.

Hopefully the state will be keeping an even closer eye on Big Splash and its operators.

And maybe it is time that Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller starts demanding to see the “financial plan” of the folks that own Big Splash Water Park which has a history of not paying its water bill on time and of endangering its patrons.

Oops, also forgot.

Commissioner Miller will never speak ill of or demand anything of anyone named Murphy.

It’s only folks with the last name of Bell that get that get the “Miller treatment”…