During a short special meeting Tuesday night that was announced Sept. 29, the Wake Forest Town Board unanimously agreed to spend $15,000 for Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Raleigh to create two designs for the pool to replace Holding Park Pool.
Ruben Wall, the director of the town’s parks, recreation and cultural resources department, said the designs would be for a 50-meter pool – the same size as the existing pool – and a 25-meter pool with a dome. The plan is to have the pool ready to open on Memorial Day in 2017.
One of the hiccups Wall and his team discovered is that the existing pool is on the historic register. He said they have met with Michelle Michael, the senior town planner who specializes in the town’s history and historic buildings, and a request to demolish the existing pool must be approved by the town’s Historic Preservation Commission after a 30-day notice. “A consultant will come on site to consider the historic nature of the pool,” Wall said.
He plans to tell the commissioners at their regular business meeting on Oct. 18 what the pool will look like with the two concepts along with an estimate of the cost for demolition “of everything that’s there” and the rebuilding.
The commissioners unanimously approved the design contract. Commissioner Anne Reeve was absent because she has hurt her back, Mayor Vivian Jones said.
Advertising for the pool design began on immediately after the board’s work session on Sept. 6 when they approved building a new pool but Kimley-Horn submitted the only bid, Wall said. He was able to waive any requirement for rebidding in order not to delay the project.
After the vote, Wall told the board that the recreation advisory board and town staff are beginning work on the design of the community house at E. Carroll Joyner Park with a community meeting planned for January. The new building “will be open before the 2019 (tenth) anniversary of the park.”
The town plans to spend $11.1 million on phase 2 of the Joyner park plan from the current fiscal year, 2016-2017, to fiscal year 2018-2019. The bulk of the money, $7.2 million will be spent on construction in 2017-2018. The money was approved by voters in the 2014 bond referendum which included $14.2 million for parks and recreation.
