Taking a step back

 

The Vandalia Park District Board will move forward with its pool project, but not before doing some research on its options.

Those options now include whether to continue on with the rehabilitation of the existing structure or building a new pool.

The park district trustees will also look at the available options on funding the pool project.

The park board met in special session, and discussed varying from the existing plan after hearing from Vandalia Mayor Rick Gottman.

In February, the board agreed to hire the Hillsboro engineering firm of Hurst-Roche for a full-scale renovation of the pool, estimated to cost about $1.2 million.

But on Tuesday, the board agreed to step back a little bit and consider all of its available options, doing so at Gottman’s urging.

The mayor recommended that the board’s pool committee get others in the community involved, and listen to what those other people have to say.

“You need to pull some business people into your committee,” Gottman said, explaining that two other building projects in the community succeeded only because of involvement from community leaders.

He used the Family YMCA of Fayette County and the Kaskaskia College Vandalia Campus as examples of how representatives of financial institutions and accounting firms, for example, played key roles in the success of those projects.

Gottman also urged the board to hear from individuals involved in the construction of a new pool in Salem, and from a grant expert with the South Central Illinois Regional Planning Commission.

“Those people could come up and give you advice, what you need to do and how you need to get there,” Gottman said.

He told board members that Salem and Effingham obtained state grants that funded most of their pool projects, but that it took them three years to get those grants.

Park Trustee Steve Hawkins said he’s hesitant to look at options at this time.

“We’re on a timetable – we can’t wait three or four years,” Hawkins said. “Maybe 10 or 15 years, we can look at a new pool.

“This (pool project) should have all been done five, six, seven years ago,” he said. “The pool needs something done, and it needs to be done right away.

“This is our best thing to try right now,” Hawkins said.

But Gottman said, “If you do your planning right, you should be able to (phase) this in.”

As the idea of building a new pool was discussed, park Trustee Brian Stout, who heads up the pool committee, said he didn’t see much difference in the rehabilitation now planned and a new pool.

“I can’t see how much more you’d be doing” with a new pool, Stout said. “We’d be doing the same things (with a new pool) that we’d be doing” with the renovation already OK’d.

Hawkins asked, “How much more are we going to get for $2 million?”

Gottman said, “I don’t know – that’s what you need to find out.

“My advice is to get these people in here (from Salem). These are the people who are living it (building a new pool),” Gottman said.

Stout said that it’s been frustrating to not receive any community input on the issue before the last couple of weeks, even though the park board has been discussing the issue for close to a year.

“I haven’t had anyone approach me in the last five months, and I’ve been flooded with calls for two weeks,” he said.

Gottman said that bringing in representatives from local banks and accounting firms, as well as grant experts, will allow the park board to get some valuable input as to how to fund the project, and how to raise those funds.

Stout explained that the beginning of the meeting that the park district has applied for a state grant that would fund up to 80 percent of the planned $1.2-million renovation.

He said the district can, without voter approval, move forward with a bond issue of just under $400,000.

It can also apply for $400,000 in assistance from the Old Capitol Foundation, meaning that the two sources provide a combined $800,000.

Stout said that the park board could also request TIF (Tax Increment Financing) assistance from the city, and that board Trustee Dustin Brewer had found about $50,000 in contingency funds that could be applied to the project.

Stout said that he’s waiting to hear from the district’s auditor whether it can also used revenue generated from farmland owned by the district.

Should the board change its mind and decided to build a new pool, it would have to build inside one of the city’s TIF districts in order to be eligible for TIF funds, Gottman said.

And, the mayor said, the district would be wise to build at the same location should it decide to go that route.

Gottman said the board needs to remember that most youth in the community can get to the pool only on bikes or on foot.

Thus, he said, the current location works better than one near the YMCA or in the west Interstate 70 interchange.

The board plans to continue discussing the pool project at its regular meeting, at 4 p.m. next Thursday in the conference room at the Okaw Area Vocational Center.

It hopes to have at that meeting at least some of the individuals recommended by Gottman.