Wild Spring And Summer Weather Delaying Expansion Of Bellaboo's Play And Discovery Center In Lake Station, Indiana
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Cold, then rain, then heat, then more rain have added up to an anxious waiting game to finish construction of a new outdoor children's park in Lake Station, Indiana.
Bellaboo's Play & Discovery Center is hoping for one thing from Mother Nature: five consecutive days without rain.
General manager Kara Mackey showed off what will be the new Imagination Garden, a major outdoor expansion of the popular children's amusement park.
The new three-acre addition contains climbing and water elements surrounding a pirate ship.
By now, Bellaboo's hoped the new area would be filled with children. Instead it sits empty and incomplete.
"We're about 95 percent done with construction, and the only thing that's really been holding us up is the poured-in-place, the playground surfacing; and that's because you need five warm dry days in a row," Mackey said.
So far this spring and summer, that just hasn't happened.
"Warm has been hard to come by, and now dry has been hard to come by," Mackey said.
Finally, they're getting the heat they need, at least allowing park workers to finish some of the painting,
For now, Mackey can only talk up the Imagination Garden as kids and their parents escape the heat inside, with plenty of spaces for kids to get lost in their own imaginations.
For those parents who continue to call, looking to book birthday parties in the new spot, Bellaboo's can only ask them to be patient.
"As soon as it's ready, it's going to be a wonderful feeling," Bellaboo's employee Christine Blue said.
Now if only Mother Nature would play along.
Bellaboo's is owned by the Lake County Parks Department. It's located off Interstate 94, near the Interstate 65 junction.