Peru unveils designs for $7M swimming pool

City council has yet to consider designs, costs

Architect Mike Kmetz discusses Monday, July 14, 2025, the designs he drew up for Peru's proposed swimming pool. The Peru City Council has yet to take up the question of whether to approve the designs and fund the $7 million price tag.

The pool would feature diving boards, a water slide, 25-meter competition lanes and a capacity of 434 swimmers. A committee thinks the City of Peru could fund it with a 20-year bond.

Will the Peru City Council go for it? That’s the $7 million question.

Monday, the Peru pool committee unveiled a design for the pool, which could be sited next to the splash pad.

Architect Mike Kmetz drew up the sketches for the three-section swimming areas and bathhouse. The designs do not presently include a children’s pool, though the primary swimming area is “zero entry,” meaning its point of entry is child-friendly with a slope of three-quarters of an inch per foot.

Can we afford it? Yes. That’s my short answer.

—  Ken Kolowski, Peru mayor

“All of this is conceptual,” Kmetz allowed, noting the fluid price tag sits at $6.6 million.

Committee member Rick O’Sadnick said the committee arrived at a project budget of about $7 million based on a proposal to use hotel-motel taxes. These average $750,000 a year and some funds could be available for a pool.

Based on questions from the assembly, Kmetz also revealed the proposed design is about three-fifths the size of Ottawa’s swimming pool, which cost $7 million to construct about four years ago.

How to staff it with lifeguards and what price to charge for admission are issues to be decided later by the city council – if the council even goes for it.

What are the odds, O’Sadnick said, of getting a grant to fund a swimming pool?

“Zero,” Kmetz replied.

“If we’re going to go ahead with this,” O’Sadnick said, “we’re going to pay for it.”

And when would it be built?

“That will be up to the city council,” said committee member Sherry Mayszak.

Mayszak had launched a petition drive to hold a non-binding referendum in November 2024. That passed with 68.6% of the vote.

Peru has been without a municipal pool (a splash pad, however, was constructed in 2018) since 2010 when then-mayor Scott Harl shut down and demolished the money-losing pool after more than 80 years’ service.

Mayor Ken Kolowski thanked the committee for “what they’ve accomplished,” and said the $7 million price tag is feasible.

“Can we afford it?” Kolowski said. “Yes. That’s my short answer.”

Already, that is disputed – and portends a tough sell when the city council takes it up.

Alderman Mike Sapienza, seated in the spectator gallery, disputed the characterization that a pool could be paid for with no taxpayer impact – “I think the citizens were a little bit...I’m going to say deceived,” – and said the hotel-motel taxes would have to be replaced.

A look at the swimming complex unveiled Monday, July 14, 2025, at a meeting of Peru's pool committee. The design includes (lower right) a general swimming area, a flume and 25-meter competition lanes. The city council has yet to consider the design and $7 million cost.
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