That’s what Assistant Finance Director Jeff Newman told the Town Council Monday. The $630,000 annual cost is based on 4.4 positions at the pool and does not include items like the chlorine needed to operate the pool. How the town would try to offset any of the operaating costs was not discussed Monday.
On Monday, the The Town Council gave staff direction to move forward with the design of the pool with Opulent Outlines. It will include several recommendations from the Bay Oaks Committee such as eliminating a waterall to improve the view corridor for lifeguards, the depth of the pool, and getting an exact cost estimate for exactly what the town will be getting. The Mayor also wants to see more shade structures around the pool.
Mayor Allers said, “Everyone really wants to know what the pool will cost. That needs to be out there before we make a final decision.” Town Manager Will McKannay said he’ll make sure Opulent breaks down the exact cost for everything the town will be getting. In a previously shown video, Opulent included a lot of items that looked very nice but were not included in the cost of the pool which left both the Town Council and Bay Oaks Committee members wondering what they would be getting.
Fort Myers Beach was awarded a little over $13 million in CBDG-DR funds for three projects; the North Island Water Tower, The Bay Oaks Pool and Newton Beach Park. The money is from the federal government (HUD) and administered by Lee County. $4.7 million of the total must be used for the tower, leaving $8.3 million for the park and the pool. At every step of the way, Lee County must approve what the town is doing for each project. The rules to spend the CDBG-DR funds are very strict.
Last month, Opulent representatives told BORCAB committee members the new pool will cost between $4.3 million and $4.5 million. They were shown a video and pictures of the design that was previously presented to the Town Council. A lot of what was presented in the pretty pictures will not be included in the rebuild, such as picnic tables, tiki huts, sail shades, and landscaping. All of those add-ons would come later and a funding mechanism would need to be identified. The committee would have liked to see pictures of exactly what the town would be getting from Opulent for the $4.5 million.
When Opulent’s Jason Tobias was asked how much the new pool would cost to maintain he didn’t have an answer. When he was asked how many lifeguards were needed, he said he would need to get through engineering first. There were no representatives from Opulent at the Town Council meeting Monday to answer questions.
In addition, nobody seems to know if the structure under the pool is stable. BORCAB member John Dussliere, who’s spent his entire professional career around pools, said “100% of the concrete under the pool will need to come up. The tree coming out of the drain tells me it’s rooted into earth.” The pool has not been touched since Hurricane Ian came through 4 years ago and Tobias said the kiddie pool shell is not repairable.
On Monday, Assistant City Clerk Jason Freeman said Opulent has now agreed to do a core sampling to see if the structure is sound to build on. Tobias said last month he had not taken any core samples of the shell to determine if it was safe. His estimate of $4.5 million is based on the shell being sound. “There’s definitely some unknowns in every structure,” Tobias added.
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What the heck, really ?
We have millions of gallons of FREE water within yards of this project.
Use it.
It’s like building a cooler for ice in Alaska in the cold season.
Come on folks this is simple.
The only way the pool should be repaired and operated is if the Town agrees to increase the user fees to cover the costs, or to turn over all Bay Oaks operations to a private company to manage and be liable for the operational costs.
The whole thing is ridiculous and illustrates how clueless the town staff and council are. It’s scary that they have the ability to sign us up for the pool’s ongoing financial support when there are so many unknowns. Sad.
This should be a pool for swim lessons, lap swim, maybe a swim team and hanging out. Before another penny is spent, need to know soil conditions and other infrastructure.
P.S. Perhaps some of this bungling is why Anita recently gave this manager a C grade.
I think, as always, she was being kind.
BTW, did the manager give money to those two employees after he fired them?
Another bungled mess leading straight into the managers office.
If it isn’t misuse of millions in grant funds and creating resident anger with a proposed unrealistic tax hike it’s offering extravagance without knowing the costs.
What kind of government does that.
In two weeks a new council may want to consider much greater oversight of the manager’s office.
Agree with all of the previous comments and don’t believe that a pool of the design and project magnitude proposed is worth the money. At this point, I believe that there are too many unknowns in the proposal to intelligently move forward and therefore, any decisions should postponed until the next council convenes.
I’m wondering why council is requesting a rendering showing exactly what they are getting, not one with nice extras that just make it look better to the eye. Every single photo we see of new developments are phony. They always make it look good in the drawings. Case in point: the drawing of the new Tiki bar on the old Whyndom property shows a wide open view to the ocean. Everyone knows (I hope) that the view is obstructed by the mangroves. This council, any council, has to be consistent with every development.
I don’t believe any money should be spent before the new council exceeded. I don’t think a pool is worth it. I don’t think enough people use it. also I don’t understand why the cities payroll increase $600,000 when it was operating efficiently. why do we need a vice mayor and all these additional positions. ?
Please defer this decision to the next council. Better yet, please defer ALL decisions to the next council, as the current council loves to spend money recklessly. A public pool of this magnitude is totally unnecessary. It does not need to be like a resort. C’mon guys….let’s use our heads for this one!!
I haven’t heard anyone talk about the past number of people using the pool on an annual basis. Wouldn’t this be important before spending millions on the rebuild?
Bahahahahahaha. They hiring PHD’s? It’s a freaking pool. 250k tops, not 600k.