This time of the year, they wait for rain, and then they wait for the Army Corps of Engineers to turn up the water.

They're also waiting for money to build a $300,000 whitewater park. But as the City Council ponders a convention center estimated to cost $192 million -- maybe more -- paddlers might as well save their breath for rolling their kayaks.

Half of the money needed for the whitewater park was authorized by a 2003 parks bond referendum, for which bonds have yet to be issued. The City Council's Budget and Economic Development Committee discussed the bond this week.

That portion of the money could make it into Raleigh's budget in May or June.

The other half of the money would come from $28.4 million left over from a countywide tax on hotel and restaurant meals used mainly to pay for the convention center. The leftover funds would pay for the park and five other tourism-related projects.

But the City Council tabled the proposal after several council members expressed uneasiness about the final cost of the convention center last week.

"I'm pleased they're even considering to give us some of the leftover money," said Elizabeth Gardner, a WRAL-TV meteorologist and whitewater kayaker. Gardner has advocated for the park before the City Council and has become the would-be park's unofficial spokeswoman.

But kayaking enthusiasts at Falls Dam were less than satisfied about the City Council's delay.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised," said John Stevenson, a kayaker from Knightdale, who plans to move to downtown Raleigh in the near future. "Downtown is important, but it's not all about what we put down on Fayetteville Street."

Council member Jessie Taliaferro said the multiple sources for the park's funding is problematic.

"It's challenging when you're drawing the money from different places," said Taliaferro.

At last Tuesday's City Council meeting, Taliaferro proposed a scaled-back motion that would include the whitewater park and only a few of the other projects, but the motion was voted down 5-2, with Philip Isley joining Taliaferro.

Questions have also arisen about a few of the other projects, such as an aquatics facility in Cary and an N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences research center.

"It would be easier for some of the projects if we were to vote on them on a project-by-project basis," said Taliaferro.

As it stands, Falls Dam already draws local kayakers and others from around the state when the conditions are right. Up-to-the-minute water conditions are available on the Internet.

And so Stevenson was playing around in the waves earlier this week after the Army Corps increased the Falls Dam discharge to about 1,300 cubic feet per second.

Just below the dam, the Neuse River looked like a pot of rolling, boiling water, drawing dozens of kayakers and spectators over the weekend.

Sarah Machinist, president of the Carolina Canoe Club, said the club has about 1,000 members, many of whom live in the Triangle.

She said kayakers from around North Carolina and neighboring states show up to play below the dam on weekends.

The whitewater park could be designed to operate even with a minimal dam discharge.

"If you could imagine us having a place to play all the time, it would draw a lot more people," she said.

Whitewater park designer Gary Lacey of Boulder, Colo., has already surveyed a 900-foot section of the river -- the south channel from the Falls of the Neuse bridge to the canoe landing.

In Charlotte, Lacey is designing a $25 million whitewater facility for expert paddlers.

That's not the kind of park Gardner wants at Falls Dam.

"We want this to be a place where people can learn and practice," Gardner said.

"For now, we just have to wait for it to rain," said Machinist.