City council moved ahead last week with plans to build a more feature-filled, yet significantly smaller, pool at Doris Roznovak Aquatic Center in Murphy Park. Council members voted 4-1 to accept an option that was a slight upgrade from the one originally presented.
“I know you’re saying there’s not time, but I feel like we just need a little bit more time. I’m not ready to pull the trigger,” said Councilwoman Shelli Cobb as she voted against going forward with the amended pool design.
The existing pool consists of two pool areas totaling 9,619 square feet, divided between a play pool and a lap pool. The replacement concept was going to be 7,035 square feet with a potential price tag of $6.4 million and additional amenities including a water slide and playscape. After public outcry over the smaller overall size, the Parks and Recreation department presented council with four alternatives for a larger pool.
Council heard options for an 8,000-squarefoot pool with an $8.743 million cost, a 10,000-square-foot pool with a $10.73 million tag and a 15,000-square-foot pool with a $15 million estimated cost.
“I would love to have a bigger pool, I’m not against a bigger pool, but I’m also careful about spreading amenities out across the community and not just focusing on one swimming pool,” Councilman Gerald Anderson said.
Anderson has advocated for replacing the swimming pool at Robinson Park.
Council ultimately voted on an option which increased pool size to 7,485 square feet, added a fourth lap lane and increased the potential price to $6.67 million.
Deputy City Manager Jeff Jenkins said that after talking with his bond committee he was able to determine the potential impact on the cost for a larger pool on the city’s debt and taxes.
The option chosen by City Council will potentially be $1.67 million over budget. Jenkins said the overage could be made up by reallocating 2024 bond money earmarked from other parks projects and reissuing new debt in 2025 to make up for it.
The other options would require additional funding through the 2025 bonds and would result in the tax rate going up. Jenkins said the 8,000 square foot pool would add $.009 (almost one cent) to the tax rate the city sets. The 10,000 square foot pool would add 1.6 cents and the 15,000 square foot would add 2.8 cents to the tax rate.
“We need to recognize what the cost is. It helps me compare it to other things. We could build 90 backyard pools for what we’re spending on this. So, in my mind it seems excessive for what we’re spending on it,” Councilman Kelly Cmerek said.
The new councilman calculated rough figures for the cost of the pool plus interest, number of days in the pool’s expected lifespan and average number of users per day to come up with a different type of comparison.
“Basically for us to open the doors, that costs the city about $3,500 a day,” he estimated. “Every kid that walks in costs the city about 30 bucks. We have to understand there’s a tremendous cost to this and we need to be financially responsible...in this community we have hundreds of projects like this that are needed. Probably hundreds of millions in old infrastructure that needs to be fixed.”
Parks and Rec Director Tyler Bybee said there is a tight timeline to get the pool built in time for next swim season. While he doubts they will meet his hoped-for goal of Memorial Day 2025, since the new option is based on plans that were already 60% complete the director is hopeful the new pool will open in summer 2025.
In addition to the options for a bigger pool, Bybee said his department is scheduled to begin work on a master plan that would potentially include an indoor pool or additional community pools across different districts.
“I would like the entire community to know that we’re looking at an indoor pool possibly, possibly adding additional pools everywhere else,” said Councilman Robert Garcia.
