In a move to avoid exceeding the water usage cap set for Murphy by North Texas Municipal Water District, city council members last week curtailed the hours and days of operation of the splash pad at Central Park.

The decision was made at a council meeting Tuesday, May 15.

New splash pad hours of operation are 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. from Memorial Day until Labor Day, closed on Monday for maintenance. The splash pad, however, will be open to groups who already have booked reservations for its use.

City Manager Mike Castro explained that city water usage could exceed the NTMWD cap of 1.405 billion gallons annually and the overage could be as much as 25 million gallons based on usage since August 2017.

NTMWD resets the usage cap whenever a city exceeds its assigned level and establishes a new rate to be paid for water.

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