Tuesday night the Wake Forest Town Board agreed to build a new Holding Park Pool with several features including a lap pool, a slide plunge/lesson pool with open and enclosed sides, a children’s multi-use pool with play features and a shaded pavilion, all on the same site as the existing abandoned pool. The bad news? It will not open until the spring of 2018.
Ruben Wall, the director of the town’s parks, recreation and cultural resources department, laid out three possible plans, all over $2 million.
In the first plan, the contractor would build all the features listed above but do it in two phases with the 25-yard lap pool available for use in the spring of 2017. But the contractor would have deconstruct some of the first year’s work to build the complete pool area by the spring of 2018. The cost, with the deconstruction added, was estimated at $2.8 million.
The second plan was to build everything at once which would delay the opening until 2018 but cut the cost to $2.5 million.
The third plan would also allow for opening in 2018 but would simply reconstruct the existing pool with improved lighting, a new filtration building, and a shaded pavilion, all of which are included in the first two plans. The cost would be $2.1 million.
The plan in all cases is similar to a pool just opened in Columbia, South Carolina, meaning, Wall said, the estimated costs are current and close to what it will cost to build the Wake Forest pool. There will be no trees removed in any of the plans; the footprint will not increase.
The commissioners informally agreed with Commissioner Jim Thompson, who said if the are going to spend two point one million for a straight replacement, they should instead approve the plan with so many features and have a 21st century pool as against a 19th century pool. They will take a formal vote during their business meeting Nov. 15.
“If we don’t do some of the amenities, we could save $100,000,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. She then went on to say, “I’m just upset about this whole thing. We’re going to go another whole year without a pool. I’m so angry. We knew for two years that we had a pool that drained all its water out and then we wanted to fill it up. There had to be a hole in it.
“I don’t think we have handled this OK since 2014. For four years we’ve been fooling around about this pool. That’s a crying shame,” Jones concluded.
“I think we’ve bandaided the pool for twenty years,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said, “but in 2018 they will have a fabulous facility.”
Thompson also suggested the town partner with other facilities like subdivision pools to offer swimming lessons in 2017. “We can put the call out” for people to help out.
Commissioner Brian Pate noted that the board talked about several town needs during its mid-year retreat, including replacing the public works complex on Friendship Chapel Road. “The numbers are adding up very quickly.” Pate said he did not want this board to spend so much money that it tied the hands of the next board. “I’m not saying I’m against this.”
Earlier in the meeting, Town Manager Kip Padgett said BB&T, which already has agreed to a loan of $740,000 for the pool repair has agreed to add an additional $2.5 million to that 10-year loan at a good rate, 2.5 percent. He also said the impact of the new loan would be mostly in 2018 and 2019.
“The town keeps the borrowing limit below $10 million each year because it helps us with more favorable interest rates,” Padgett said. This year the town had already agreed to borrow money for its rolling stock – cars and motorized equipment – and Padgett had planned to spend $5 million to repair roads and connections between roads. That will require the town to look at additional revenue sources, and he mentioned increasing the vehicle registration fees.
After the pool discussion, the commissioners also informally agreed with the new language for a rewrite of the town’s vegetation ordinance which allows homeowners who disagree with the town’s arborist to seek a second opinion and follow that.
Jennifer Rall, the urban forest coordinator, said the town can step in if the homeowner fails to take steps to mitigate any danger to others. “If the owner fails, the town shall still have the option to make that mitigation and charge the homeowner.” She also told Pate, who asked about future dangers, that her “recommendation would be limited if I cannot step onto the property” and future damage to life or property would fall back on the homeowner.
Planning Director Chip Russell and Downtown Development Director Lisa Hayes said the town has three possibilities to use the $150,000 received from the state after the last legislative session that must be used or encumbered by the end of March. Those possibilities are to convert the one-block section of Owen Avenue between South White and Brooks streets to a festival street, assist with the effort to provide wi-fi throughout downtown or to begin changes to Front Street at the underpass.
“We might want to use Owen for a while as a festival street before spending any money on it,” Russell said. He later added that they can do a lot with the money on Front Street pretty quickly.
The mayor urged them to do “something that shows,” and Hayes ended by saying, “Our staff recommendation is to focus on Front Street and see what we can do.” Those possibilities as listed in the Renaissance Plan update include LED lighting the underpass, building an arch or something above the underpass to indicate it is the entry to downtown, putting in pedestrian walkways (temporary or permanent), cleaning the hillsides, improving the stairs on either side and building a walkway between the stairs to help pedestrians.
