Michael Bowman of Wheeling swims with his 2-year-old son Nikolia on Saturday during the grand opening day of the new swimming pool at Grand Vue Park in Moundsville. (Photo by Shelley Hanson)

MOUNDSVILLE — Terry and Greg Byers traveled from Wintersville to swim with their grandson, Sam Doremus, in Grand Vue Park’s brand new swimming pool during the facility’s grand opening day on Saturday.

Upon seeing the giant waterslides, lily pad course and more, Sam, who was visiting from his home state of Virginia, could not contain his excitement.

“This is my favorite water park ever,” he said to his grandparents.

Sam and his grandmother climbed the flights of stairs to the slides’ platform and each chose one to try out. They liked it so much they did it again and again before venturing to other parts of the pool.

Construction of the facility began last July and just finished recently allowing the park to hold a soft opening last week. Marshall County Commissioners Mike Ferro, John Gruzinkas and Scott Varner, along with Park Manager Craig White, and several park employees gathered to cut a ribbon to celebrate the opening.

Ferro noted when the commission hired White 15 years ago they challenged him to develop the park into a destination. Since then many attractions have been added including aerial challenge courses, new cabins, a RV park and now the swimming pool with waterpark features.

“The opening of this pool right on the heels of a new RV parking area is quite the accomplishment,” Ferro said. “We are very proud to support Grand Vue in many ways. We believe it’s one of the best-kept secrets in West Virginia and even that is changing.”

Ferro thanked everyone involved with the project for their hard work.

White thanked his staff for their work in getting the facility ready, along with the builders and consultants on the project. He also thanked park board members.

“Fifteen, 16 years ago when I had the opportunity and (retired commissioner) Don Mason gave me that shot, we never knew where this was going to go,” White said of the park’s growth and development.

“We just kept plugging away and nobody said no, and they let us keeping moving. It has been very, very rewarding.”

Mark Wilkinson, president of the Paddock Swimming Pool Co. of Maryland, said his company is “really proud” of the new pool.

“What we’re happy about is the team we got to work with. The county was fabulous and the general contractor was very helpful,” Wilkinson said after the ceremony. “This job finished a lot quicker because of that.”

He noted the pool has an overflowing edge all around the pool, “grand sized” water slides and lagoons for different activities. There are also shaded areas as well.

“They put a lot in the small space they had,” he added.

Lombardi Construction of Follansbee was the general contractor and Martin Aquatic of Florida designed the pool.

The old pool was demolished and removed to make way for the new one. It features 7,500 square feet of space. The zero entry pool is heated. In addition to the 21-foot-tall slides, there are basketball hoops, a diving board, climbing wall, lily pad course and spraying water toys for younger children.

A large picnic shelter was constructed at the back of the grassy lot in just the past two days. Picnic tables will be added soon to the shelter.