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Heavy snow triggered a devastating fire this past winter at Adventureland Amusement Park in Altoona. But park officials are hoping an expansion will help put the fire in the past.

Adventureland will soon have even more tools to deal with summer heat, as construction nears completion on Adventure Bay, which park officials say will make the location a full-fledged water park destination.

The $5 million addition will expand Adventure Island, which began with the 2008 addition of Kokomo Kove and 2009 addition of Heron Harbor, to nearly five times its current size. It will be the largest addition in park history, according to Molly Vincent, an Adventureland spokeswoman.

Vincent said Adventure Bay will contain 13 new water slides, what the park claims will be the longest “lazy river” in the state, a swimming pool with a swim-up bar, and private cabana rentals. Two of the slides will be high-speed 65-foot-high structures that drop riders into about 10 inches of water.

“When this gets open, it is just going to be overwhelming; it is just going to be so much more than a new ride,” Vincent said. “There is just so much down there; it is really going to be a water wonderland.”

Construction has been ongoing since October, and Vincent said the water park should open at some point in June. The final date is still to be determined.

Vincent said Adventureland is taking advantage of the lack of a large outdoor water park in Greater Des Moines.

“We knew that somebody was probably going to do it, so we might as well be (the one),” she said.

“We couldn’t really decide what we wanted to put in first, so we kind of went all in and did it all.”

Vincent said Adventure Bay was a natural progression given the positive response in 2008 of parkgoers to Kokomo Kove. Vincent hopes the added water features will boost attendance this year as the initial ones did in 2008, when Adventureland posted its highest attendance figures ever.

“(Kokomo Kove) gave people a reason to come out to the park when it was 95 degrees,” she said. “We are looking for a repeat performance now, but of course weather is our biggest (challenge). It can either help us or hurt us. So we are hoping for a nice 85-degree summer from about June 1 to the end of September.”

Vincent estimated that Adventureland will need to hire about 100 additional employees this summer to staff the water park.

“It is an expense, but I think it is one that is not only going to pay off, but it is really going to be a boon to our guests,” she said.

“Because now you don’t need to travel 100 miles or 200 miles to get to a full-sized water park, because there’s one in your back yard.”

Admission to the water park will be included in the price of a ticket to Adventureland.