Did Amarillo Get Robbed? Kinda Looks Like It.

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The excitement wrapped around Thompson Park Pool opening was palpable. Everyone excited about the new additions, but on eternal hold from getting in.

Then it opens, and is promptly vandalized. Moving past that though, the cost of the new features is staggering.

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Overall, the project at Thompson Park Pool was slated to cost $11 million. They ended up paring it down to $8 million, but did we really see $8 million spent?

Pampa and Canyon both have impressive water parks. This is where the excitement came in for Thompson Park Pool.

Canyon's water park is a sprawling 7,500+ square feet. It has multiple water slides, a pool area to swim and lounge and various other features.

The Pampa water park is extremely similar to Canyon with numerous slides and other attractions, like the big bucket that fills up with water then dumps it all over you.

So surely, Amarillo was going to come through big time with $8 million to spend right? We expected to see several slides, a massive splash pad, etc. What did we get?

One slide...ONE! So what is the cost of a water park kind of slide? It's not nearly as much as you think.

Doing a simple Google search will show you that a pretty expansive water slide can be purchased for approximately $100,000 give or take a bit. That's all. So you mean to tell me that the construction of said slide cost around $7.9 million?

No way, no how. I don't want to speculate on how much the construction of the slide cost, but I know for sure it wasn't $7.9 million.

So how much did we REALLY spend on this "improvement" to Thompson Park Pool and where did the rest of the money go? Did it line the pockets of lawmakers? Is there more to come?

Only the local government can say...but they aren't talking.