Charles City Parks and Recreation Board recommends city fund pool repairs now, consider additional features later

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Parks and Recreation Board moved to a different lane at a special meeting Monday evening, voting to recommend that the city borrow money to fix the existing municipal swimming pool as a first step, then decide later whether to ask voters to approve a bond referendum to add features to the pool and/or build a splash pad.

Tyler Mitchell, the city Parks and Recreation Department director, had taken a recommendation from the Parks & Rec Board to the City Council at a workshop meeting last week, asking the council to consider putting a swimming pool project costing upwards of $3.2 million on the ballot in November.

But council members had several questions, many of them about a potential splash pad, including location and whether or not there would be a charge for use, and about other new features proposed to be added to the pool in addition to the cost for repairs.

At the Parks & Rec Board meeting Monday evening, City Administrator Steve Diers and Mayor Dean Andrews discussed another option with the board that would avoid a referendum, at least initially.

Diers explained that the city is allowed to issue general corporate purpose bonds up to a certain amount by a vote of the City Council, without requiring the 60% voter approval needed in a bond referendum.

The limit for issuing bonds without a referendum for a city the size of Charles City had been $700,000. But among the many tax and spending changes the Iowa Legislature passed during its session earlier this year was an increase in that limit by 30%, to $910,000.

In the project proposal put together by the Parks & Rec Board’s consultant, JEO Consulting Inc., of Ankeny, the cost to repair the pool was estimated at $953,000, and would likely extend the life of the 32-year-old pool by another 20 years.

Those repairs would include joint repairs, some tile replacement, gutter crack repairs, surge tank repair, a new ground water sump pump, a new pump pit, adjusting the recirculation pump, replacing filters and the chemical system, replacing deck equipment and repairing fencing.

But Andrews pointed out that the price listed for the repairs was $733,000. The total $953,000 pricetag included a 30% contingency amount for extra costs that might occur during the project.

If the total cost didn’t require the full contingency then the entire repair project could be financed by the city by issuing general corporate purpose bonds, which would not require a vote of the public, Diers and Andrews said.

Andrews said the board could come back to the City Council later and ask for the referendum for additional pool features then. It could also use that time for intensive fundraising that would reduce the total cost and make the council much more receptive to the idea of a referendum, he said.

Parks & Rec Board members spent some time discussing the splash pad option, including whether it should be attached to the pool or in some other location, and whether an admittance fee should be charged.

The apparent sentiment of the members was that there should be no fee and no fence around a splash pad, so even if it was located near the pool it would not be part of the pool. Various location options were also discussed, including other places in Lions Field Park, at Sportsmen’s Park, east of Brantingham Street north of the Cedar River and other possibilities.

But Mitchell said if the board was going to recommend the repair first option, it did not need to make decisions on a splash pad or other pool features now.

The $3.22 million price tag for the total project included the repair costs plus $2 million for features that would include a climbing wall, NinjaCross mini obstacle course, floatables, zero-depth entry features, shallow depth play structure, pool bench and shade features.

The total price also included $770,000 for a splash pad, but that would be reduced to about $542,000 if city water was used and allowed to go down the sewer – so-called “pump and dump” – instead of being hooked up to the pool’s piping, pump, filters and chemical systems and recirculated.

Asked for his opinion, Mitchell said the city Parks and Recreation Department was putting an increasing amount of money into keeping the pool operating. As an example, he said, they recently had to replace two booster pumps and it is questionable day to day whether the pool heater will be working.

“It’s always a crap shoot when I show up for work in the morning what’s going to be working,” he said.

Mitchell said he wasn’t sure if the Parks & Rec Board had enough time to get the community ready for a bond referendum by an election Nov. 7, but “something needs to be done.”

The board voted to recommend that the City Council issue general corporate purpose bonds to repair the pool, but did not set a cost limit. Mitchell said he would contact JEO regarding more information on costs if just the repair option is tackled now.

General corporate purpose bonds are referred to in the Iowa Code as “reverse referendum” bonds, meaning they don’t require a public vote to be approved, but voters can petition a city council to require a public vote. If enough signatures are turned in, the council would have the option of putting the question on the ballot, or declaring the proposal abandoned.

The code sets the number of signatures required on a petition at 10% of the votes cast in the last regular city election, but not more than 1,000 votes. There were about 2,350 votes cast in the 2021 city election, meaning 235 signatures would be required to force the City Council to call for a referendum or abandon the project if it decides to borrow up to $910,000 by issuing the bonds.