City council discusses when – and if – to open swimming pool

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

It’s still up in the air whether or not people will get to cool off and enjoy the new waterslide at the Lions Field swimming people in Charles City this summer.

Charles City Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Mitchell discussed the situation with City Council members at the council meeting Monday evening.

Mitchell said he and directors from other communities have called down to the state and have gotten no direction from the governor’s office whether or not pools will be open at all this year.

“If she (Gov. Kim Reynolds) gives us the OK to open in May or June, we can take a look at what we want to do,” Mitchell said Monday. “If she doesn’t let us open until July, that only gives us about four weeks, and I think that’s too late.”

Mitchell recently met with the Iowa State Parks and Recreation Association, along with 68 other community park and recreation directors.

“What I got from a lot of other cities is, they’re all nervous about opening,” Mitchell said. “We don’t know if we’re going to be able to handle everything that comes our way.”

Mitchell said the U.S. Center for Disease Control has not yet come out with definite guidelines for public pools, but the Parks and Recreation Association has four main directives that all public pools will have to abide by.

Those include keeping everyone six feet apart, in the water and outside the water; making sure facemasks are worn by everyone, including employees and everyone at the pool, until they go into the water; and cleaning every area that can be touched around the pool every hour the pool is open to the public.

Pools must also pay someone to monitor social distancing, and that person cannot be a lifeguard on duty.

Mitchell said several communities are waiting for Reynolds to make a decision about public pools. An announcement is expected on May 15, and at that point a decision will have to be made locally.

“Our biggest worry is that if we open, and no one else does, we’re going to have a lot of people coming from everywhere to use our pool,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said lifeguards will also need additional training on how to deal with the COVID-19 issue, should any of them have to perform CPR.

“This is a new thing that the state suggested we do,” Mitchell said. “We will also have to figure out how to screen people coming into the pool, and we have to consider the costs of additional cleaning supplies.”

Mitchell said that last year there were about 150 people per day on average at the pool, so he won’t be able to allow more than 75 people at the pool at a time under 50% opening guidelines.

“If we open, it gives kids and community members something to do around town,” he said. “But staffing is also going to be a challenge until all this passes.”

Mitchell said the pool employed 32 lifeguards last year, and he only has 13 at this time. He said that several of the lifeguards he does have are not yet certified, because certification classes have been closed due to COVID-19 precautions.

Currently all indoor and outdoor swimming pools in Iowa are closed, even for training of essential employees.

The pool normally opens Memorial Day Weekend. Mitchell said it takes about two weeks to fill and properly treat the pool and get employees trained.

“I don’t want to start to fill the pool and treat it, and train all the employees if it turns out we’re not going to be able to open it at all this year,” Mitchell said.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council approved a professional services agreement between the city and Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. (SEH) regarding engineering services for revising the Southwest Development Park storm water improvement project.

Last year, SEH engineers designed a project that included additional stormwater detention facilities, improvements to the existing drainage channels, and a new culvert under 11th Street. The project was let in January 2019, but all the bids received exceeded the project budget and the bids were rejected.

The city has received a $100,000 grant through the Water Quality Initiative Program administered by Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS). The purpose of the grant is to improve the quality of stormwater runoff, using constructed wetlands to slow down and help clean the water.

The plans previously prepared by SEH have to be revised to include the wetlands portion of the detention facility and a reduced project scope to lower the cost of the project. The current funding for the project is $100,000 IDALS grant, $100,000 Winnebago Industries, $100,000 SW TIF Board, $80,000 Charles City.

The fee for the agreement is a not-to-exceed amount of $19,900.00.

In other action on Monday, the council approved an agreement with the Charles City Community School District regarding the sale of a vacant lot adjacent to Morningside Apartments.

The school district is interested in purchasing the lot, which was initially purchased by the city when the apartments were developed in the early 1980s. The district wants the lot for its new athletic complex. The city has no plans to use the property, which is about three-fourths of an acre in size.

Since the entire parcel was purchased with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city needs HUD to release its interest in the property and subdivide the parcel to partition off the lot.

The lot is appraised at $5,000 and it is estimated that it will cost somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 to cover the costs of the sale. The school district has approved an agreement to cover the out-of-pocket expenses, should HUD not release its interest in the land.

Also Monday, the council approved a resolution that named CUSB as the City’s bank depository for a three year term ending June 30, 2023.

The City recently sent out requests for bids on the city’s banking needs for a three year term. The City received one back from CUSB and the one that was submitted by First Citizen’s Bank which missed the deadline for submittal.

In other business on Monday, Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews officially swore in Dylan Isakson as a member of the Charles City Police Department.

Isakson, 23, graduated from Charles City High School in 2015. He has worked at the jail for more than two years.