The children in Ironton have a little longer to wait for a water playground in the city.

The Friends of Ironton had originally planned to open its sprayground at 310 S. Second St. in time for a post-Memorial Day Parade grand opening but a lack of funding and construction delays meant that the opening was postponed until later in the summer.

Club member Rick Jansen had said the group wanted to open the sprayground in time for the Gus Macker tournament and then the Fourth of July. Most recently Jansen said the area will not be opened in time for the Fourth of July.

“Construction delays and funding has us held up again,” Jansen wrote in an e-mail to The Tribune.

The club members will likely discuss another opening date goal at the club’s July meeting, board member Jodi Rowe-Collins said.

Rowe-Collins said there are several reasons why the opening has been postponed again.

“First we started digging the hole and there was debris in it,” Rowe-Collins said. Besides problems digging, group members had unforeseen illnesses and funding problems also held up the opening.

“We’re just going to keep plugging until we get it done,” Rowe-Collins said. “We’ve had setbacks but it’s nothing that we can’t get done.”

The sprayground will be built with motion sensors, water holding tanks and a recirculation system to cut down on water usage, Rowe-Collins said.

The Friends are having a fundraiser for the project. For every donation that’s made, the Friends will engrave a brick with the donor’s name. The bricks will be installed once the construction is complete.

Rowe-Collins said the idea behind building the sprayground is to offer the downtown area and the community another draw.

“I think the project will be worth the wait,” she said.

Those interested in contributing to the sprayground may contact Madolin Blackwell at 740-532-9755.