Peru Pool Committee pauses $7M municipal pool plan

Peru residents will have to wait for the city council to determine whether the city will build a municipal pool.

Last week, the city unveiled concept drawings for the proposed $7 million pool during the municipal pool committee meeting. If built the pool, which was drawn in Washington Park, would feature diving boards, a water slide, 25-meter competition lanes and a capacity of 434 swimmers.

The committee believes the city could fund it with a 20-year bond. However, during Monday’s committee of the whole, some aldermen weren’t convinced.

Finance Chairman Tom Payton said the minutes from last week’s meeting don’t say anything about an interest rate on that bond.

Mayor Ken Kolwoski said he had talked with City Finance Officer Tracy Mitchell regarding a possible interest rate.

“I don’t know exactly right now what that interest rate would be,” Mitchell said. “So, I really don’t want to make an assumption. But, it’s like a mortgage. You take out a certain principal amount … you would have to pay interest.”

Beyond the financial questions, committee members wanted to know what the next step in obtaining a pool would be.

Director of Engineering/Zoning Eric Carls said that, typically, the city would have a detailed site evaluation to determine where the best site would be, then determine the costs associated with the site. The step after that would be seeking out a proposal for the cost to develop the plans.

“What I typically see in a project like that from a plan preparation and permitting standpoint, is probably at the earliest, anywhere from nine to 12 months,” he said.

Carls said then the city would work through design drawings and then those would be distributed to actual contractors to bid the project.

He said all that has been presented at this time are conceptual drawings, which are presented to the council before projects.

“We have to execute an agreement with the consulting firm,” Carls said. “What I’ve typically seen in a lot of our projects is those agreements can range anywhere from say 7 to ten percent.”

Kolowski said he didn’t think it was smart to move forward with spending maybe $600,000 on a design and then determine the city won’t move forward with the pool.

Alderman Andy Moreno, a member of the pool committee, said the point of the committee and why they wanted to vote next Monday was to establish location, cost and design, which has been done.

Alderman Jason Edgcomb said he believed it would be premature to vote on the pool.

“There sounds like there are questions that aren’t answered,” he said. “I don’t really know what I’m voting for at this point … but I’m going to recommend to find out our next steps.”

Edgcomb said the committee should have Pool Committee Chairman Rick O’Sadnick, who was not present on Monday, reach out to architect Mike Kmetz and have him come next Monday prior to council to answer the lingering questions and figure out next steps.

The committee of the whole will meet 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 28, before the lingering meeting to discuss the linguring questions revolving around the municipal pool. There will be no vote on the pool.