Driving along State Route 36 in his off-white Chevy pickup, Brazoria Mayor Ken Corley points out the many buildings that lie vacant along the highway lined with auto shops, churches and burger joints.

Then there are the campaign signs.

"Vote for water park," some say. The words echo the blue letters plastered across the mayor's own t-shirt: "Brazoria Co. Water Park."

But they are outnumbered by other signs with large, red letters in all caps that urge voters, "Vote no to 1.75 million dollar bond issue for water park."

In recent weeks, a battle has been fought in this town of more than 3,000 over a move by leaders to issue taxpayer-backed bonds to attract a Christian-themed water park. On Saturday, voters will decide whether to approve $1.75 million in debt to finance roads, pipes and other infrastructure as well as incentives for the project.

To Corley, the water park would provide an economic jolt to a town that he believes has been overshadowed despite rapid development all around it. He calls the project a "catalyst" to attract more visitors, jobs and businesses.

Opponents of the bond measure object to using taxpayer money to benefit a private company. They say Corley has improperly pushed the measure rather than focusing on critical needs such as deteriorating roads and a shoddy sewer system.

"I don't think the town is dying," said BobbyJo Newell, a Brazoria resident who has been organizing against the bond referendum in the city 55 miles south of Houston. "Sure, have businesses closed? There's reasons why they've closed, but we've got new ones. West Columbia and Lake Jackson have got CVS and Walgreens. We're just a little town in between these big towns."

'Stupidest thing'

Most of the storefronts along State Route 36 are small, independent businesses.

Roschelle Hicks' custom t-shirt shop is housed in a tiny building along the highway, in between the beige, corrugated exterior of Cooter Brown's Country Club and a store called Farm House Salvage.

Hicks can't conceive of why residents would oppose the measure, especially when city officials claim that property and sales tax revenue and utility money from the water park and two separate projects - a coming RV resort and a new building supply store - would help pay off the debt.

The city even projects it would ultimately make money from park taxes in the future.

"It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life," Hicks says of the opposition, as a sewing machine hums in the background.

But Corley noted that more than a dozen businesses have left in recent years.

He said he's tried to woo other businesses with limited success, mainly because the town is too small to support any of them and local residents would rather go to nearby Lake Jackson - where development is growing - or even to Pearland for food and entertainment.

Many rural towns around Houston are similarly striving to attract growth and development, said Jay Blazek Crossley, executive director of Houston Tomorrow, which studies and advocates for urban planning and quality-of-life issues around Houston.

Difficult to justify

Adam Perdue, an economist at Bauer College's Institute for Regional Forecasting, said the water park could be beneficial for Brazoria if it attracts residents from urban areas like Houston and Pearland. Without visitors, though, it would be difficult to justify spending taxpayer money.

"If this was going to be a good attraction, then you think it would happen without a subsidy," Perdue said.

Corley said he got the idea for the water park several years ago while driving through Sheridan, an unincorporated community of about 200 residents that in the late 1990s developed a water park. Soon it was attracting hundreds of visitors from across the state.

The deal Corley and other city officials have worked out with Canton-based Splash Kingdom, which wants to operate the park, is that if the referendum passes, about $1 million from the bonds would fund roads, pipes and a large parking lot, according to City Manager Teresa Borders. Some $700,000 or so would help fund what Borders calls "economic development" associated with the park. The city and company believe the park would attract 50,000 visitors in the first year.

$5 million investment

The land for the proposed water park was donated to the city by the Brazoria First Assembly Church - about 35 acres of rural grassland interspersed with oak trees. City officials say Splash Kingdom, which operates a handful of parks in Texas and Louisiana, would invest about $5 million in the complex.

Johnny Blevins, the president and CEO of Splash Kingdom,did not respond to calls for comment.

This isn't the first religious-themed park that has sought taxpayer support. Kentucky officials withdrew an offer of tax incentives for a proposed Noah's Ark theme park amid concerns that the Christian group behind the project was seeking to advance a religion. The group this year sued state tourism officials, saying their free speech rights had been violated.

Brazoria residents Eric and Irene Kendrick live in a large house encircled by anti water-park signs.

Sitting on a padded chair in his living room, Eric Kendrick says there was a time when he didn't have feelings for or against the water park. Then he realized that with the bond election, city officials wanted taxpayers to foot part of the bill.

"Twenty years of bonds for a private entity," he said. "It's not a public entity."

'Misleading' language

Critics also note that the proposition indicates debt service taxes - one component of property taxes - might go up about 10 cents, and there's no cap on them going higher.

Borders said sales taxes from the water park should allow the city to decrease another portion of the property tax rate, but Borders acknowledged there's no guarantee this will happen.

The proposition also does not mention the words "water park," instead only mentioning a "park," which opponents say is misleading.

"Now we're in the water park business with a bond that doesn't say water park," said Newell, adding that the operator should foot the entire cost.

Corley says he has no "earthly idea" why the language is written that way.

After completing a circuit of the town, Corley parks his pickup at the town's city offices. He knows there's a lot of opposition to the bond measure, but he says he won't give up even if the referendum is voted down.

"There's always options," said Corley, who says he and his wife will pledge $10,000 to the water park if the measure fails. "You never run out of options."