Rural Joplin water park reopens

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June 26, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Jun 26, 2009, 10:20 PM CDT

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

Almost two years after the drowning death of a 6-year-old Joplin boy, a local water park reopened Friday, but not without a scuffle between law enforcement and a water-park employee.

The Swimmin’ Hole Water Park reopened after owner James Burt produced documentation showing he had secured a $1 million liability insurance policy required under a new state law. The measure was enacted last year after Ethan Cory drowned at the park while on a trip with the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Missouri.

But the reopening was preceded by controversy after a Swimmin’ Hole employee, 64-year-old Cecil Scribner, allegedly struck a deputy with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department who was on site to verify Burt had proof of insurance. Scribner has since been charged with one felony count of assaulting a law-enforcement officer.

Advertisements had announced the park would reopen at noon Friday, although when Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland and other officers arrived to verify Burt had the required insurance paperwork, he told them it would likely be later in the afternoon when he had the documentation in hand. The water park was admitting people onto the grounds at that time, but keeping them out of the water, a practice that Copeland said complied with the law.

Copeland said he and Burt were discussing the insurance requirements when Scribner, whom he described as “belligerent,” kept trying to insert himself into the conversation. Burt and some of his employees dispute that characterization.

Capt. Richard Leavens, who was with Copeland, alleged Scribner at some point shoved a sheriff’s deputy. When Leavens confronted him, he said Scribner allegedly tried to gouge his eye with his thumb. Scribner was then subdued by several officers and taken out of the park in handcuffs.

Burt said Copeland’s officers, whom he termed “henchman,” put their hands on Scribner first. He also accused the authorities of unnecessarily deploying a Taser against Scribner.

“That is brutality,” Burt said.

Leavens said one officer did draw a Taser, but did not use it because Scribner was already under control.

“Pretty much everybody out here has been belligerent and argumentative,” Copeland said after the altercation. Several people gathered at the park entrance and taunted the officers. One asked them: “Why don’t you bust a meth lab?”

Copeland and the other officers soon left, returning less than two hours later after Burt’s wife, Renatta, arrived with proof of the liability insurance.

“They have the insurance,” Copeland said as he left Friday. “As of right now, they are in compliance.”

Renatta Burt said the park had to pay a premium of almost $30,000 for the liability insurance.

Asked why the park announced that it would open at noon, before the documentation was ready, she said, “We didn’t know what the sheriff wanted for paperwork.”

Renatta Burt said the park had verbally told the department who its insurance carrier was and that the park “never intended” to let anyone into the water without obtaining the paperwork.

Copeland said the law requires the park operators to have the paperwork on-site.

The requirements were spelled out in legislation that was passed last year and was named “Ethan’s Law” in honor of Ethan Cory, who drowned July 17, 2007.

The law was seen as a means to provide some measure of safety regulations at private, for-profit water parks that are located outside of municipal jurisdictions in Missouri. Local legislators who sponsored the bill said at the time that mandating insurance would hold owners accountable for safety standards before they could be underwritten for coverage.

The Swimmin’ Hole carried no insurance at the time of Cory’s drowning.

Lauren Cory, Ethan Cory’s mother, on Friday said she did not oppose the water park reopening as long as it complied with the new state law and had adequate safety measures.

“As long as the safety precautions are there, I have no problem with them reopening,” she said.

During an investigation into the drowning, Newton County authorities found the boy’s death to be accidental, but concluded that “a lack of supervision” on the part of the Boys & Girls Club and the park employees was evident. Investigators also said they thought the park had too few lifeguards.

Renatta Burt on Friday said people will be safe at the park, while James Burt said the Swimmin’ Hole had eight lifeguards on staff. All are Red Cross certified, he said.

Among those waiting in line under a broiling sun was Veronica Moretto, of Arkansas. Moretto was visiting Joplin on Friday, and said she had noticed the park during previous visits.

“There’s not very many water slides in Joplin,” she said of why she and her infant came to the park.

Moretto said she was not aware of Ethan Cory’s drowning until several months ago. The incident, which she said was an accident, did not stir any safety concerns.

Suit

A lawsuit brought by Ethan Cory’s parents, Lauren and John Cory, against the Boys & Girls Club in the wake of the drowning is scheduled to go to trial in September in McDonald County.