A new municipal pool has been a desire of the community since the decline of the Bode Howard Memorial Pool started many years ago, but a new facility, as one can imagine, is very expensive.
Thanks to the funds granted through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the City of Winnemucca was able to allocate approximately a million dollars to general government services, freeing up money to be moved to the capital improvement fund that is now funding design work for a new city-owned pool. The City has also been working on how to potentially fund the construction and other aspects of the project for the past few years.
The Winnemucca City Council discussed some of the recent pool design related developments at their most recent meeting on Oct. 24, including a report from City Manager Alicia Heiser that the City has received almost 400 responses regarding a public survey (available to everyone on the City’s website, winnemuccacity.org, under the “Announcements” tab) about the potential design. Councilwoman Ashley Maden was absent from the meeting.
The architectural firm Knit was awarded the design project by the City previously and is gathering input from the community for the design, which is currently a “bank slate,” according to Knit Senior Architect and Project Manager Victoria Cousino.
Causino was joined by other Knit architects and representatives Dennis Panars, Rui Yao, and Aquatics Engineer Ryan Murphy from Councilman Hunsaker’s office.
With the help of Winnemucca’s Parks and Recreation Director Tom Heikkila, Knit gathered together members of the community for focus groups with goals to discuss what many of the regular pool-users would want and not want to see in a new design on Oct. 25.
The groups ranged from those interested in aquasize, competitive swimming, health and wellness, recreational swimming and many other facets of pool use. Community members weighed in on everything from depth, temperature, safety, classes, dressing rooms, the hosting of competitive competitions and other events, and many, many more aspects.
There were numerous ideas and feedback taken in by Knit and Cousino assured the groups that a new facility would be a “night and day” difference from the existing pool because of the standards and codes that it will have to meet alone, already on track to be major, major improvements.
Based on a tentative schedule from Knit and the City, the first preliminary design conception will be presented to the Council at their first regular meeting in Nov., but unfortunately, the rest of the project is still unfunded and a recreation tax that would fund the project for the community has been voted down on local ballots twice.
“The city is seeking funding sources but currently there is no funding through construction, so as far as a groundbreaking and opening date, we really can’t say yet,” explained Cousino, who added that the facility is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars.
Members of the community present at the focus groups speculated that this is because of the community’s false perception that the facility would be run by the Winnemucca Boys & Girls Club, not the City.
City officials have assured the pool would be owned and funded entirely by the City of Winnemucca, as are the sports fields and splash pad located in close proximity to the potential site identified as the desired location for a new pool near Lowry High School.
City officials have also assured that the existing pool will remain open for continued use as long as possible until a new pool can be constructed.
The City and Knit are still encouraging the community to participate in the short survey available winnemuccacity.org in order to to have a say in the design.
“We’re going to make sure that this gets designed to meet [the community’s] needs,” said Murphy.