By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
After the sudden closure of the Ellis City Pool, the Ellis City Council was hopeful construction on the new pool would begin quickly enough so the pool could open at the start of the swim season next summer, but Lamp Rynearson aquatics group leader, Andy Smith, informed the council Monday that would be unlikely.
“We’re just not in a position to go through all of the steps, in the order that they need to be gone through to get us there,” Smith said.
“It’s unfortunate really that the pool can’t make it one more year,” he said, “but I understand conditions, what they are, is the situation we find ourselves in.”
In response to the council’s questions about the possibility of opening at some point during the summer, he said there were variables that make it hard to determine.
“It might be possible,” Smith said, “but I would rather under-promise and over-preform.”
A large unknown for the project is the weather during the winter months.
“If we have a winter like we had last year, there is no chance of it,” Smith said.
The biggest concern with construction during the winter is the concrete flatwork that needs to be completed, he said, before low temperatures set in.
“The chances of having the right weather for the February, March, April and have this pool go in is dicey at best,” Smith said.”Once the ground freezes, you are done.”
With the current timeline, moving quickly enough to beat winter will not be possible, he said.
“We are not going to be ready for a contractor to start until the dead of winter,” Smith said.
While the project is unlikely to be completed as fast as the council hoped, Smith told the council the project is in a good position.
“We are ready to get the surveying and the soil borings going for the engineering,” he said.
The engineer can only use drawings up to a point until data from the site is collected.
“That’s the bottleneck at this point,” Smith said.
After getting authorization, Smith said he would begin the surveys and finalize the pool design.
Smith expects final plans to be completed in about 90 days, with two opportunities for the council to review the design during the process.
Once the design is finalized and approved, he said construction bids could be sought in January
“It’s going to be a great time of year to be bidding this project,” Smith said. “I am hoping that we are on the front end of most of these 11 projects that were all awarded (Community Development Block Grants) just like your city was. Hopefully, we will have some hungry contractors.”
Once a bid is accepted and construction begins, he said the pool should be completed in eight to nine months.
City Clerk Amy Burton also gave a report on the Splash Bash and other fundraising that has occurred since the pool was closed.
While she did not have a complete total from the Splash Bash, she told the council she had more than $10,000 that had been recorded on Monday, bringing the total raised for the project to more than $17,000/ That included a $5,000 donation from Equity Bank. More has been committed, but not collected.
“I definitely think we have support out there,” Burton said. “We’ve got people excited about the project and anxious to see where our next fundraiser goes.”