Slide the City could return to Fort Mill

For the second straight year, Fort Mill leaders have a swimsuit season decision to make in the middle of winter.

Slide the City arrived in June, bringing about 3,000 people to A.O. Jones Boulevard for a multi-lane water slide running the length of the road beside Nation Ford High School. The event was the first of its kind in the Charlotte area. Now, organizers are reaching out to the town again.

Caroline Hasty, who joined the town as events coordinator after this summer’s Slide the City visit, asked Fort Mill Town Council for some direction at its Dec. 14 meeting.

“The company that hosts this event has begun booking these events in October for 2016,” she said. “Being new, I wanted to make sure that this is what council wanted to do again.”

The council told Hasty to look into it and bring back details for a possible 2016 event. Generally, council members gave good reviews for the June event.

“I had a lot of positive feedback,” said Councilman Tom Adams.

Mayor Danny Funderburk agreed.

“It was all positive, everything I heard as well,” he said.

The organizing group already contacted Hasty, who is reviewing notes to see what might change or stay the same with a 2016 event. She will look into other possible sites in town or site location improvements. The date could change, too. About 2,700 people paid to slide this year, with hundreds more turning out to watch.

“It was fairly well-attended,” Hasty said.

Slide the City began in 2014 with six events. Dozens of events followed this year. Organizers set up 1,000 feet of vinyl, selling passes to slide down any of three lanes alone or in groups.

The Fort Mill event had participants from young children to their grandparents, and all ages in between.

So far there are 40 events planned across the Unites States and Canada for 2016. The closest are in Columbia, Greensboro, N.C. and Raleigh, N.C.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Slide the City could return to Fort Mill."