Commission tames Piper Park's bounce house Sundays, but balks at five of them

At Piper Park, Recreation Director Nick Stone asked the Parks and Recreation Commission to put some order into the picnic-area inflatable business: move bounce houses off gas generators and onto the park's electrical system, contract with a single approved vendor, Astro Jumps, for insurance, scheduling and enforcement, charge a $50 administrative and electrical fee, and grow the number of allowable bounce house spots from two clusters to five.

“Surrounded by five bounce houses and five air blowers with 100 screaming children—you couldn't pay me to rent that.”— a commissioner, arguing against expanding to five bounce house clusters

Stone said the current free-for-all is what pushed the proposal forward. "We do allow bounce houses right now," he told the commission. "One of the vendors has referred to it as the wild west sometimes on Sundays out there."

Commissioners went along with the electricity and the single vendor, though not without heartburn about the procurement. "If we have one vendor, does that mean we have to have a competitive bidding process for that one?" one asked. Another was blunter: "I'm very uneasy with just picking a vendor without a big process as a municipality... someone's going to come back to us and say, I have my brother-in-law runs bouncy house, why can't I use them? We just created a problem." The bigger objection was the count. One commissioner warned that with five clusters, "an adult party would not want to be in that area ever."

On the fee, commissioners pushed for more than $50 — one floated $200, dedicated to parks and public works projects, and another asked, "Why would I not be charged more if I'm monopolizing more of the park? We're gonna make money." Stone pushed back: "One of my concerns would honestly be pricing ourselves out of this business." The commission approved the policy by voice vote, all in favor, with four clusters instead of five and a directive to come back with a look at differentiated half-day versus full-day electrical fees.

The meeting opened with the installation of officers: Reed Baxter as chair and Jean Fidell as vice chair, approved unanimously.