Council decides on location for new pool

Sidney's new swimming pool will be located south of Lodgepole Valley Youth Camp, near the t-ball fields.

The city council made the official location decision at Tuesday's meeting. Due to necessary road paving and the installation of a sidewalk or trail in the area, this location will cost the city an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 more than the other proposed sites. The prospective plans for the new pool include a competition pool and zero depth entry pool with one or two slides.

Many members of the Sidney swim team attended the meeting to urge the council to move the project along.

"These kids work hard every day and unless something is done shortly they're not going to have a pool to practice in," swim coach Charlotte Dorwart told the councilmen.

The city's current pool was built in the 1970s and many are worried that it might not last until summer 2016, when the city hopes to open the new pool.

Several other groups use the pool during the summer in addition to the team, including those taking swimming lessons and kids from local daycare centers, Dorwart said.

The swim team is also urging the council to find a professional to fundraise the extra money (possibly $5 million) it needs to build an indoor pool. City officials estimate it will generate between $3 million and $4 million from sales tax to build the outdoor pool. The pool fund is allotted 30 percent of the new half cent sales tax revenue over the ten year period that the tax is in place. The city contends that an indoor pool will also cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more per year in operational costs, because it would be open year-round.

Mayor Wendall Gaston has already asked the pool project's engineer for recommendations for fundraisers for the indoor pool, because the city only has the funds for an outdoor pool.

Although the city toyed with the idea of attaching a splash pad to the new pool construction, it decided on Tuesday to leave that as a separate project from the pool. Gaston suggested that the city ask another entity if it would be willing to build the splash pad.

Building the splash park at the location of the city's old pool would allow the city to utilize the infrastructure already in place there, he said.

"I don't think the splash pad belongs there," said councilman Mark Nienhueser. "I have a different vision that it's located some place else in the community."

Councilman Roger Gallaway agreed that the splash pad could serve to attract people to a different part of the community.

Because some of the tentative plans for the new pool came in well over the projected budget, Gaston suggested that the council make a list of amenities it desires such as fountains and slides in the zero depth entry pool for local businesses to sponsor.

"I feel the council are getting put in a corner because we're not making a decision," Nienhueser said. "That's not the case. The facts have yet to become in front of the council in which to make a decision."

Engineers provided the city with many possible layouts for the pool with different amenities in various locations. Several of these came in at different estimated costs.

"So we're dealing with a project somewhere between three and a half million and five million dollars, but yet what's our revenue stream," Nienhueser said.

Although the city thinks the sales tax will bring in between $3 million and $4 million over a 10 year period to pay for the pool, the councilmen agreed that it should attempt to determine how much the tax will collect in each individual year. They also discussed attempting long term financing in order to pay for all the extra amenities.

"We also are trying to pay for a 30,40 year project with 10 years worth of income, which is going to fall short of it," Nienhueser said.

Citizens may be able to vote on another half-cent sales tax to continue funding the pool in 10 years when this one expires, but there is no guarantee that the legislature will allow these local sales tax votes a decade from now.

"It seems to me that we're going to exclude a lot and then we're going to ask for some private donations for a splash pad, for a slide, for this and the other at the same time you're going to gear up a fundraiser effort for an indoor pool," said councilman Chris Gay.

This would mean that when attempting to raise funds from local entities for an indoor pool, the city might have already asked the same businesses to sponsor amenities at the outdoor pool. Gay favored longer-term tax funding for amenities at the outdoor pool instead.

"I'm all for funding this thing over 20 years because frankly trying to fund a 40-year asset with 10-year money doesn't make a lot of sense to me," he said.

The city plans to discuss the funding and cash flow for the pool during upcoming budget hearings at the beginning of August.