04/22/2024
📣🏊 Statement Regarding the Decision to Close the Pool:
For many years now, the Park Board has been aware that the pool has been deteriorating and it was only a matter of time before it was just not financially wise to keep spending dollars on band-aids to keep the pool going. In 2021, the park board authorized a $100,000 expenditure that repaired the pool vessel, some of the mechanicals, and piping so we could operate the pool safely. We were looking to get 3 or 4 years out of it while a new pool alternative was discussed. City Administration, along with our financial advisors from Ehlers, developed a Capital Plan in which it was determined that the city could bond for up to 3-Million dollars for a new pool. The park board, with the help of the previous pool planning committee, developed a 4-Million-dollar new pool plan that is to be voted on in August 2024. The plan is to have the city bond for 3-million and the Park Board would look to raise the remaining 1 million+/- to build a new pool if voters are in favor of funding a new pool. It has always been the intent to run our pool through the summer of 2024, however due to the items noted below, and other mechanical issues, it is not safe anymore for us to operate the pool. The existing pool is over 50 years old and the cost to maintain it is no longer reasonable. A new pool is needed.
At the Park Board meeting on Monday April 1st, staff presented a recommendation letter from our MMUA Safety inspector. The letter itemized several safety concerns as noted below. Staff wanted to get a second opinion from the League of Minnesota Insurance Trust (LMCIT). They are the company that insures our public facilities. Staff asked the park board if the opinion from LMCIT is to close the pool, can council make that decision at the April 18th City Council Meeting. There is an urgency to make a decision because swimming lesson sign-ups need to start soon. The Park Board agreed. LMCIT sent a representative out to look at the pool and she itemized the same items. These items, along with not knowing if the mechanicals will continue to work each year, led to a staff recommendation to the council to close the pool.
- The floor drains no longer have working traps. They have disintegrated over the years.
- The water and sewer lines are failing, and there appears to be a blockage of some sort on the sewer line.
- There is a toilet that cannot be repaired, and there is also a urinal that cannot be repaired.
- There is a block wall that appears to be pulling away from the other walls.
- Cracks on the pool deck were repaired by Brad Thatcher last year, and they have “opened up“ again.
- The cement on the pool deck has settled significantly. There are many places where someone could slip, trip, or fall.
The MMUA Safety Inspector has inspected many pools in the last few years, and Zumbrota’s pool ranks at the top for needing repair/replacement.
