Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com
The El Dorado City Commission approved a contract with Garver LLC., of Wichita at their Wednesday evening planning meeting to continue plans for the highly anticipated aquatic center.
The El Dorado aquatic center was proposed by Jeremy Sundgren and Patrick Todd during public comment during the September 16 City Commission meeting. Afterwards a committee was formed to head plans for the center. The current city pool has issues that many municipal pools are experiencing such as water leaks and low staffing while the El Dorado High School pool isn’t used due to damage. The municipal pool also has high operating costs due to its age and outdated features.
The main reason to consider building a new center is to host the recreational swimming team league championships in the coming years in addition to offering a place for residents, students and surrounding communities to utilize for school, recreation, therapy and much more. The benefits include attracting outsiders/tourists, communal use for residents, USD 490 swimmers, recreational competitive swimmers, summer pool use as well as a place for Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital to utilize. It was noted that the local YMCA doesn’t have the pool size and capacity to host the swimming tournaments.
The contract approved by the commission is not to exceed $162,086, which means the price could end up lower if the work done is lesser than mentioned. That price includes Garver LLC., analyzing the best sites for the pool such as the old Legion Golf Course, North Main Park, the existing municipal pool site, and USD 490 high school. Garver will also come up with preliminary and master design plans while doing environmental impact studies, conceptual designs as well as listing useful features for the center.
The center, as noted by the commission and committee, is preferred to have an outdoor and indoor pool as well as a recreational area for toddlers with functional interaction pieces.
A financial forecast for the center that will outline how much it will cost to operate will accompany the project and its economic impact it will have on El Dorado. The project is scheduled to take up to 27 weeks to complete with staff updates as they are made available. The commission noted that they were able to bring down the cost of the fee by offering to host their own public engagement sessions and public meetings and to request fewer site evaluations, only approving up to five sites if needed.
