Makes you wonder a little bit?
Parks and Recreation Director Don Kearney said the type of outdoor pool the city can build is held back by the parameters of Save Spellerberg’s petition. At $7.5 million, a new outdoor pool there would be one of the city’s smallest, about 2 acres, and probably would not include certain amenities.
The indoor option would be about 3.2 acres and would have both a recreation area and a lap pool designed for competitions. That plan includes three diving boards in the lap pool. The indoor option also drew a number of questions from the council.
Several times I have heard Parks and Rec Director Kearney say that the indoor pool plan is ‘preliminary’. They claim the outdoor pool plans are ‘small’ because they are hamstrung by the petition’s $7.5 million dollar pricetag, but interestingly they are able to build a facility that is almost twice the size, with a roof, for $19.5 million. I don’t believe it for a second. The over $40 million dollar Pavilion that was only supposed to cost $21 million is proof the city isn’t really good at projections when it comes to these projects. Also, the therapy pool will have to be enclosed according to experts (it isn’t in the current proposal). So if the city is ‘educating’ us on an indoor pool, should they be accurate about the TRUE cost of the facility? I find it hard to believe that with the tiny outdoor facility they are proposing for $7.5 million that they can build such a large indoor facility for $19.5 million. So either one of two things are going on here. They will build the indoor facility for the proposed pricetag of $19.5 million and scale back the plans, or they will build what is proposed for a lot more. (remember, even if the outdoor pool fails on the ballot, the NEW city council will still have to approve a 2015 budget for the indoor pool and selling bonds).
Parks and Recreation officials plan to host public meetings about the two plans at each of the city’s community centers before the election, Kearney said, but the dates haven’t been set because the department has to write a program that doesn’t advocate for one plan over the other.
“We’re in the process of putting together an educational program,†Kearney said. “That will be reviewed by our legal team.â€
These statements alone make me suspicious of the city’s ‘education’ intentions. Very suspicious.