Council seeks public input on pool project

     Upgrading Buffalo Center’s wading pool will be more complicated than the city had hoped.

     Jim Kelly from Pool Tech Midwest met with the city council last Wednesday to present plans for the renovations, and he said the entire wading pool will need to be replaced in order to meet state approval. This means a much higher price tag than the city had anticipated, and the council must decide how to proceed.

     The city had originally hoped to add on a zero-depth entry slope to the existing pool at a cost of about $70,000, in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Kelly said the state will not approve the city’s plans for that renovation, however, because a new state law requires changes to the rim of the pool.

     Kelly explained that the coping, which forms the rim around the opening of the pool, needs to form a proper hand hold, according to the new law. He says the current pool has steel coping that goes back under the deck, and there’s no way to remove it without removing a tremendous amount of the deck. In order to get state approval for renovating the wading pool, he said it would be necessary to demolish the entire pool.

     Pool Tech estimated that the cost for replacing the pool will be between $225,000 and $250,000 for a basic pool.

     Kelly said that the city could continue to use the existing pool as is, but that would leave the city susceptible to lawsuits.

     Councilman West said he would like to hear community input on how people would like the council to proceed with the wading pool project. He encourages residents to contact their council members and share their thoughts, so the council can decide if there is community support to spend the extra money on the pool.