West Turlock will get its public pool fixed. But what is the funding plan, timeline?
Construction on Columbia Park’s pool may start as soon as September because of the Turlock City Council’s decision Tuesday to repair the closed facility.
The council unanimously voted to fix the pool and splash pad at an estimated $1.8 million, going against a commission recommendation to rebuild and update the 64-year-old pool.
How the city will fund the required safety repairs is to be determined, but staff on Tuesday explained some possibilities. The pool has been closed since the end of summer 2019 because it has 18 issues violating safety codes, the Aquatic Design Group company reported in an assessment.
Looking into a fundraising campaign is one option, said Allison Van Guilder, director of Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities. Some people have expressed interest in making donations for the only public pool in west Turlock, Van Guilder said, but were waiting until the council picked one of the three renovation options. The council can also consider Measure A funds, but Van Guilder again said receiving state funding through Proposition 68 is not likely.
To pay for the Columbia pool repairs, the council could also borrow money from a general fund unassigned balance, Acting City Manager Gary Hampton said. The city could pay off such a loan with expected cannabis dispensary revenues that have not been accumulated yet, Hampton said.
“I think it’s fairly safe to say with two of the cannabis operations up and running, with a total of four allocated for the community, and the revenues that we’re seeing in the first half of the year from those two establishments, they can very well repay any advancement out of the unassigned general fund fairly quickly,” Hampton said.
The council will need to sort out funding later, but Van Guilder said the bid award process could finish in August at the earliest, allowing construction for repairs to begin in September. Crews may then finish construction in January 2022, meaning the pool will remain closed this summer.
No new pool features are included in the plan the council selected, said Chad Kennedy of O’Dell Engineering, the firm that drafted the three options of either fixing the pool, removing it, or rebuilding it. Removing the pool and expanding the splash pad would cost an estimated $2.5 million, while rebuilding and adding equipment and locker rooms would cost about $6.3 million.
“You really wouldn’t notice much of a difference other than maybe some new concrete,” Kennedy said. “So there really isn’t any additional benefit to the community than what you already have.”
But crews will need to remove the wall dividing the main pool and wading area, also known as a kiddie pool. The wall violates a safety code, Kennedy said, and there typically must be a 4-foot walkway between separate pools.
How long the planned repairs will last before more construction is required depends on how much pool maintenance the council budgets for, Van Guilder said. In the past, she said the parks and recreation department maintained the pool using its limited operations budget and did not have a specific capital replacement plan for the pool.
“Had we been able we maintain the facility over the years, we probably could have avoided this conversation altogether,” said Parks, Arts, and Recreation Commissioner Randy Icelow. “So, let’s keep an eye on the long-term maintenance of this thing.”
