Among the reasons: Competition from city-owned aquatic centers in the Des Moines metropolitan area.

Pleasant Hill City Administrator Bob Fagen said city officials are interested in meeting with the park's owner, Craig Smith, to see if there might be a way to keep the business open.

"Anytime there's a business closing, the city would like to sit down with a business and see what can be worked out," Fagen said. In the letter, Smith said he is retiring and his son is busy running another growing business, A.J. Plumbing.

"As with everything there is a beginning and an end," Smith said in the letter. "This letter is to inform you that White Water University will not be opening next year."

Neither Smith nor his son could be reached for comment Tuesday. White Water University sits on about six acres at 5401 E. University Ave. in Pleasant Hill.

The park opened in 1980 with a single water slide. It now includes two water slides, two tube slides, a wave pool, a children's slide and a volleyball pool. The park also has a miniature golf course, go-cart track and haunted house.

Smith approached city officials in Pleasant Hill last year about the possibility of the city buying the park, his letter said. Fagen said the deal did not seem workable for the city because it would have required Pleasant Hill to go above its self-imposed bonding limit. The discussions did not progress further because selling or closing the park was portrayed only as a possibility at the time, Fagen said.

In light of Smith's announcement, Fagen said the city would be willing to talk with him again, although the city's financial concerns remain. The final decision on any purchase would be made by the City Council.

The assessed value of the land and buildings is about $479,000, according to the Polk County assessor's office. That figure does not include the value of the business itself.

In his letter, Smith said White Water would have "to expand to stay on top. In the future it will be very difficult to compete with the public sector."

New aquatic centers opened last summer in Clive, West Des Moines and Altoona, with features such as water slides, tube slides and a "lazy river" where patrons can float on tubes or walk against the current for exercise.

The city-owned complexes have advantages over his business, Smith wrote, because they do not pay property taxes. Fagen said White Water's closing would be a loss.

"I think it's been a major attraction for the area," he said. "I think it brings people not only from Pleasant Hill but from all over Iowa."