New city pool on agenda for Tuesday's council meeting

A new state of the art swimming pool could still be in the works for Sidney.

However, the price tag on it continues to rise and that’ll be a big topic of discussion at the Sidney City Council meeting on Tuesday night.

“The costs are considerably above what the city had hoped to spend on the pool, but we will only know the real numbers once the project is bid out,” outlined city manager Gary Person in an email to the swim pool committee.

“It’s not a simple thing to eliminate some things here and there, as most of it is tied together in some respects. It is also the intention of the council to build the infrastructure part of it so that an indoor swimming pool at some point in the future can be connected to the outdoor aquatics project.”

Sidney’s current community pool is nearly 40 years old, and city leaders began exploring the possibility of building a new facility in the past few years..

The proposed site of the new pool will be in Legion park, near the T-ball fields. City Council will have the final say so on the pool. A few concerns have arose surrounding the pool such as funding, and a possible indoor pool.

The current layout sent from Water Technology Inc., has a unique design. According to the layout, there could be an outdoor pool, lazy river, competition pool, splash pool and a plan to possibly add an indoor pool at a later time.

“The current pool has served it’s purpose and it’s kind of worn out,” Person said. “We’re trying to be proactive and look at where we’re going in the future.”

In 2012, the citizens of Sidney voted for an additional half-cent sales tax in which part of that will go to the construction of this pool.

“The tax won’t build all of it, but it will give us a good start on the money that’s needed to start this project,” Person said.

He added that there are a lot of things that need to be addressed with the project.

“Some of the other things that the council have looked at are a tennis court that could also serve as a basketball court, a renovation of the skate park, a concession stand by the soccer field, restroom renovations and a sand volleyball court,” Person said.

The council has talked about consolidating all of these additions into a 20-year plan.

“To do the project right and to have all the money we need to do it, we’re looking at a 20-year deal,” he said.

“We’d like to be under construction sometime in 2015,” Person said. “We’d like to get it opened by December of 2016. We’d continue to operate the old pool through 2015, and hopefully we can open the new one by 2016.”

The specifics of the pool are still in discussion, but the city council and Person say they’re pushing to make sure Sidney gets a new pool.

The City council will decide on the next steps for the pool project at Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 7:15. It is open to the public.