Wayback Wednesday with Peter J. Wiggins- Wednesday January 8th, 2014

          WAYBACK WEDNESDAY with Peter J. Wiggins

          Wednesday January 8, 2014 

          A WATER PARK IN GREAT WOODS?

                   We are in January and we are in the heat of winter in which the snow

            Is on the ground and the bitter cold is in the air in January, it is time to turn     

            Back the clock 16 years ago to the 1st week of January, 1998 from the pages   of the Norton Mirror----Friday January 9th, 1998 and we are taking a look at         an article in which that a water park was in the works at Great Woods in the

Mansfield/Norton line and they were conducting an environmental survey and they were conducting the traffic issues and the sewer issues of the Great Woods water park and it is called Great Waves Water Park which is called for constructing a water park complete with swimming pools, wave pools and water slides on a 20-acre parcel abutting the Great Woods for the Performing Arts Center (now Xfinity Center) which has 6,700 parking spaces and Great Waves would add another 700 spaces as some 4,500 patrons would have visited the water park on a 90-day operating period in the summer if the water park would have opened and the project would have required 60,500 gallons of water per day from the town of Mansfield and on-site wells and it were to opened in 1999, but it didn’t happen because Mansfield residents voiced their concerns about the water park because of Mansfield’s history of long and strict water bans and shortages and the water park were to draw it’s own water and also it would have added additional traffic to Route 140 if the water park were to open and if it were it would have traffic problems on Route 140 along with the families for the water park traffic along with the concert traffic at Xfinity center and also with the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC-Boston on Labor Day Weekend, there would have been triple traffic troubles on Route 140 and Route 495 in the Mansfield/Norton stretch and for the plusses for the water park were to open, that would have brought a lot of jobs for the local water park and it would have been a great neighbor to Norton and the surrounding communities around Mansfield.