Marble Falls looking to pump thousands into pool upgrades

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — In a move of “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” the Marble Falls Parks and Recreation Commission considered shaving funds from some park projects to cover major repairs to the city pool during a Dec. 9 meeting.

Parks and Recreation Director Robert Moss told the commissioners the time has come to take care of the structural needs of the pool’s pump room at an estimated cost of $40,000.

“I’m comfortable (the contractor is) not gouging us,” he said. “It’s way more than what I thought it was going to cost.” 

But he pointed out there isn’t enough money in the maintenance-and-operations budget to cover the repairs, which include replacing rusted steel, installing new stairwells, sandblasting some portions and fixing the dilapidated fence surrounding the facility.

The pump room and exterior fencing are just a few of the upgrades the city pool, located in Lakeside Park, needs, according to officials.

Chairman Dave Rhodes said the pool also needs a new diving board and lights that would allow night swimming.

With the pump room repairs, the city could be looking at sinking $72,000 in the pool.

“If something else happens, we won’t be in position to open it in the spring,” Rhodes said. “I want to be careful we’re not throwing good money into bad money.”

Outgoing Commissioner Bob Fallis pointed out if the city was going to operate a public pool, it had to be maintained.

“If you’re not going to maintain it, you have to replace it or you don’t,” he said. “This money right here should be coming out of maintenance. They’re not giving us the funds to replace it.”

In November, Marble Falls voters turned down a bond that would have funded a new aquatics center.

Commissioner Mark McCary asked if staff and the council would consider not opening the pool in 2014 to save money for repairs during the next offseason.

Rhodes said one drawback to closing it for a summer is the pool brings in revenue.

One option would be to use Capital Improvement Projects funds to pay for the repairs. The parks department has about $100,000 of CIP funding for a list of proposed projects. Moss pointed out the CIP is for improvement, which means it can be used for repairs to existing facilities.

However, with all the pool repairs and proposed other projects, the estimated cost climbed more than $40,000 above the CIP funds available.

To bring down those costs, Moss proposed changes to the CIP list. The first was to replace the diving board at $4,000 instead of the entire diving board and base at $12,000. He also recommended eliminating in-pool lighting.

Other savings would come from slashing $10,000 for new hike-and-bike trail signage and cutting another $10,000 for trail exercise equipment.

So instead of having a projected deficit of $43,180, it’s now at $5,180.

“I can work with that,” Moss said. “Take those out of there, that would be a manageable amount.”

Without the funds and without making the required repairs to the pool’s pump room, diving board and fencing, some commissioners feared there only would be one other option.

“We’re going to have to spend a significant amount of money or the pool is going to go offline anyway,” Rhodes said.

To pay for the lost signage on the hike-and-bike trail, the commission explored the possibility of using hotel occupancy tax funds because tourists use the trail system.

“It’s used for heads in beds,” Moss said referring to the the requirement that HOT funds be used to promote tourism in some manner.

Christian Fletcher, who sits on the HOT fund committee and was attending the meeting, noted there are specific uses for that revenue. The HOT committee will meet in January.

The commissioners also:

• voted to maintain the off-leash zone of the dog park at Andrea’s Pass in Johnson Park as an off-leash zone and call it that and gave Moss guidelines for the area that can be presented to the city council if there’s a question on what the commission wants

• voted to allow Moss to form a committee to submit information on Johnson Park for a distinction from Lone Star Legacy Park. “It’s a prestigious thing to have a legacy park,” Moss said. “It would be nice to have one of those parks. Johnson Park, without a doubt, has an extensive history.”

• asked staff to draft a letter to the Marble Falls Independent School District board of trustees to ask students to submit T-shirt designs for Spring Break 2014. The commission wants to present the letter to the school board in January.

jfierro@thepicayune.com