Hartley council mulls financing options for new pool

The fate of a new swimming pool in Hartley will hinge on local residents supporting it at the ballot box.

According to information discussed June 24 during a special city council meeting, a portion of the estimated $3 million price tag will need to be financed by a bond. The city's current debt limit is $1.7 million and it cannot borrow more than that for the new pool, which will need help from fundraising contributions and additional city monies.

Hartley officials will also apply for special grants to help ease the cost burden.

"The city council will have to make a determination on how much fundraising there would have to be and how much would come from the city," said City Administrator Erica Haack.

The square footage of the new pool would be comparable to the current one. Originally, the pool taskforce committee gave design company Water's Edge a price point of $1.75 million to develop blueprints. That amount would get Hartley a new pool that's 40 percent smaller than the current one with very few additional amenities.

The taskforce committee and Water's Edge went back to the drawing board to sketch out a new plan that got the city something similar to the current swimming pool.

"We had high hopes for a bigger pool, but price constraints dictated what we could go with," said taskforce committee member Jackie Stoltz.

Whether the pool bond gets on the November ballot remains to be seen. The city is pushing up against some notification deadlines, and Haack wondered if there was enough time to inform citizens about the issue.

"A successful bond vote is one that people know what they're voting for," she said.

Though some city residents may want to see a more elaborate design, Council Member Mary Westphalen, who also serves on the pool taskforce committee, said price considerations were at the forefront of discussions.

"The pool committee is being very conservative, but a big thing is that kids want to swim," she said. "Sometimes when there's too much busy stuff, there's no place to swim. We tried to gear it towards all ages."

The Hartley swimming pool was built in 1958. The last major updates were completed in 1996, and it's nearing the end of its functioning life.

"We need to be progressive and we need to do this," Stoltz said.

• Location debated

Current blueprints call for the new aquatic center to be built in the footprint of the current pool, but some residents would like to see that changed.

Pool taskforce committee member Rachel Wilson said she and other residents would like the pool to be built where the current elementary school is located. It's slated to close at the conclusion of the 2020-21 school year, and Wilson believed the property would be great for a new pool.

"I just think there are several different reasons to

consider it," Wilson said.

The Hartley woman noted the new location would be good from a marketing standpoint for the city. With the current pool somewhat hidden at Neebel Park, she said a more centralized location might be attractive to new families.

"People who don't live here don't even know we have a pool," she said. "Unless you're going to bring corn to CFE or go to the cemetery, you don't even know it's there."

Wilson also said moving the pool away from Neebel Park would increase safety for local children. Currently, they need to walk or ride their bikes past the CFE elevator, which Wilson feared could lead to an accident someday.

"I would hate to have not only the loss of a child, but also a truck driver to have to go through that," she said.

The fate of the current elementary school will be up to the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn school board. The building will house 5-8 grade students this fall, as the new elementary will be open and the current middle school in Sanborn will be undergoing renovations.

The council two years ago agreed to keep the new pool at Neebel Park due to its proximity to the campground, shelter house and playground. Building it in the footprint of the current pool will also help keep expenses low and reduces certain risks associated with construction. Since the current pool has held up for more than six decades, engineers have noted during previous discussions that the ground is good.

The council didn't seem interested in moving the pool from Neebel Park due to several unknown variables; however, cost seemed to be the biggest hurdle.

"From a financial perspective, I just don't see how we could acquire new land and then prep the land for a new pool," said Council Member Roxann Swanson. "We could acquire the land and prep it, but what are we going to have for a pool? We don't have it."

Swanson noted the city's bond limit is already constraining the project and believed increasing the price tag would be the wrong move.

"I don't know how we could even consider another location, from a financial aspect," she said. "We just don't have it. We have to run our city too."

Council Member Ron Hengeveld said that if the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn school board does decide to demolish the elementary building and sell the property, he'd like to see the land get put on the tax rolls.

"I think whatever the school does decide to do with that, somebody could come in and build some very affordable homes," he said. "I don't think they can just give their land to us [for a new pool] and I don't feel comfortable doing that."

The council will discuss the location again at future meetings.