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Charles City Parks and Recreation Board will look at priorities in city swimming pool

Charles City Parks and Recreation Board will look at priorities in city swimming pool
Charles City Parks and Recreation Board member Dennis Peterson (left) talks with Mayor Dean Andrews about the newly refurbished water slide that has been installed at the Charles City pool at Lions Field in this file photo from the June parks and rec board meeting. Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

What do you think a city swimming pool should look like, where do you think it should be located and what amenities should it offer?

Those are some of the questions facing members of the Charles City Park and Recreation Board, who have been asked to come up with their lists of priorities for the next board meeting in August.

Representatives of the Charles City YMCA and the Charles City Community School District may also be invited to write up similar lists and attend the meeting.

The aquatic center at Lion’s Field is about 30 years old and has gotten to the point that repairs and upkeep may not be financially reasonable, members of the park and rec board have said.

At their meeting in June, the members toured the empty pool, which is closed this season because of coronavirus mitigation concerns. Charles City Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Mitchell pointed out the leaking seams, peeling tile and other problems the pool has.

At their July meeting, held electronically on Thursday, the board members discussed what the next steps should be.

Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews has said on numerous occasions that the city, the YMCA and perhaps the school need to decide if they want to work together on a project, or else decide they don’t so the city can move forward.

Andrews said that Ralph Smith, who is on the YMCA Foundation board, and school district Superintendent Mike Fisher had worked with Andrews to set up a meeting at the beginning of April to discuss the topic, but that meeting was canceled because of COVID-19 concerns.

“We can drop it, but I think that’s a poor choice,” Andrews said. “I think we need to get together and figure out a plan. If the plan is to do things separately, that’s fine. But we can’t just keep saying, ‘let’s talk about it.’”

Parks and rec board member Dennis Petersen made the suggestion that each group come up with a plan, or at least a list of priorities, so the groups can compare notes.

He said he had worked on previous efforts to get the groups to work together.

“One of the reasons nothing has happened before, (is) because the three entities had such different needs. The Y wants a pool that people can exercise in. The school wanted a competitive pool. We wanted a recreational pool. The needs are different.”

Phoebe Pittman, a City Council member who is the council’s liaison to the parks and rec board, said it is possible to satisfy all the needs in one facility, pointing to the University of Iowa recreation center that has a public pool.

“It has recreational, it has zero depth, it has places for exercise and it has lap swim. It has everything in one,” Pittman said. “It does happen to be all indoor, and I’d like to see an indoor-outdoor facility, but it’s not impossible to get all of those elements combined. Heck, that one has a lazy river, and that’s what everyone wants these days.”

One of the questions is whether it would be better to renovate – or even rebuild – an aquatic center on the current pool site, or move it somewhere else.
Andrews said there is potentially plenty of space available at the YMCA site downtown.

“They have the back end of their Y, plus they have the whole Senior Center lot, too. The Senior Center is a public lot. If we’re talking long term, if the Y wanted to really expand, you just close that street between the Senior Center and the Y and you make that whole two-block area the Y and you put the Senior Center someplace else,” Andrews said.

“I think like Pete (Petersen) said, everybody should just come up with their list of, OK, here’s what I want in a pool,” Andrews said. “Then we’ll gather those lists and go from there, and if they’re non-negotiable and it doesn’t work, done. Quit talking about it.”

Mitchell said, “I think that’s our next starting point, is everyone come up with a list of what they think they need in the pool, what we need for amenities, and we go from there for our next meeting.”

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