The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 6:

Cullman’s municipal park amenities have been progressively expanding for years, but 2022 saw a significant boost in Cullman Parks, Recreation and Sports Tourism’s local lineup of new places to go and things to do.

Over the summer, the city parks department cut the ribbon on a major $10 million addition at its growing public parks area in south Cullman, welcoming warm-weather guests to the new WildWater outdoor aquatic park on the grounds adjacent to the Cullman Wellness & Aquatic Center (CWACS).

Conceived as a regional attraction for both out-of-town visitors as well as for repeat-visit locals, WildWater features a 22,000 square-foot wave pool, ten thrill slides and rides, a Kids’ Splash Area featuring eight age-appropriate slides, a Drift River attraction for more languid and laid-back relaxation, and a pair of on-site food and beverage spots.

Soon to flank CWACS and WildWater will be another new public amenity whose full construction details were finally revealed this year. First announced three years ago, the city’s replacement facility for the older Cullman Civic Center (sold in 2019 to Desperation Church) will anchor what the parks department describes as a unified Sports and Event District; one that, once all new construction is finished, will stretch across the entire 140-acre city-owned footprint from Heritage Park to Margaret Ingle Park.

The new multipurpose facility will occupy a 130,000-square-foot building sited near WildWater park across Main Avenue from Heritage Park. The complex will feature 10 basketball courts, 19 volleyball courts, a mixed-use floor area designed and automated to swiftly accommodate events of varying scale (up to a maximum attendance of 6,500 people), as well as four breakout side rooms that can be reconfigured into a total of eight.

Due to surging materials costs, the city later revised structural aspects of the complex’s plan to convert the main building from its original tilt-up concrete design to a more conventional metal-construction one. The changes, said city leaders, should not affect the complex’s interior accommodations, nor the building’s overall exterior aesthetic.

On the north end of town this year, the parks department also unveiled another new local attraction: Skate Depot, Cullman’s first-ever skatepark named for its proximity to the nearby Depot Park in the city-owned swath of park property adjacent to the retail Warehouse District. The new park features a bowl and smaller vertical features for ramp riders, as well as numerous wedges, rails, and more designed obstacles for street riders.

The $400,000 facility sits alongside the Cullman Police Department on 2nd Avenue NE, and will serve as the northern terminus of a planned conversion of remaining vacant park property that will eventually connect the entire area to the Warehouse District. In addition to skateboarders, the free-to-use park is also open to BMX riders, rollerbladers, and scooters.