There's a hiccup in the long-planned ongoing renovation of the city's Aquatics Center.
City Manager David Martinson told the city council at the Feb. 9 meeting that the Dept. of Public Works had opened bids for the project, and even the lowest bid was "significantly higher" than the job's estimated cost.
Martinson said the bids the city received were all within 20 percent of each other, so it could be that the original engineer's estimate was just too low.
After the meeting, Parks, Culture and Recreation Director D. Tyrell McGirt explained a bit of the history of the project.
"About ten years ago, the Aquatic Center was revamped. Everything in the pool area - which is what we call the natatorium - was upgraded at that time," McGirt said. "So we got a whole new pool; we added the slide; the warming pool and then all the pumps in the pump room; filter system...all of that stuff was upgraded at that time, but the rest of the facility was not."
Now, the City wants to complete the second phase of the project.
"At this point, with the current Aquatic Center improvement project, we're looking to upgrade the locker rooms; add a family locker room; make the sauna a little bigger; change around the staff office and then do some cosmetic surgery upgrades to the lobby area," he said.
McGirt said if the city council moves forward with the project in the next few weeks, the Aquatics Center will be closed for construction starting the end of the April. It will remain closed for about three months.
"Through July...we're planning to have it reopened - providing everything gets passed, [the city] council approves one of the bids that have come in...we're planning to have the Aquatic Center reopened by the start of the high school swim season," McGirt said.
Martinson said his office is looking in to why the bids were so high versus the original engineering estimate, and would provide an update at the council meeting scheduled for Feb. 23.
