The future White Salmon Valley Pool will feature one eight-lane, 12-foot-deep lap pool and one main building for showers, dressing rooms, lockers, a ticketing office and mechanical and chemical components in initial construction, according to consensus met to confirm key aspects of the design plan, following a presentation to commissioners by the contractors associated with the pool project.
A proposed wading/shallow-entry pool and separate therapy pool will be combined into one but will be part of a separate construction phase, depending on the results of a capital fundraising campaign, according to discussion during a June 10 regular board meeting of the White Salmon Valley Pool Metropolitan Park District.
The district met last week with representatives from Plan B Consultancy and Kirby Nagelhout Construction Company to discuss six separate design options the contractors devised. With the six options included a range of possible features and cost estimates ranging from $3.97 million to over $5 million in cost, which include construction estimates as well as contractor fees, siting costs, taxes, additional fees, and insurance costs.
The board decided, following lengthy discussion surrounding the pros and cons of each design option, to go with combined elements of two of the middle-of-the-road designs that captured the highest priorities of the commissioners — a pool that is wide enough for eight lanes and deep enough to allow for installation of a diving board — with some modifications.
The original design options called for a separate shallow-entry pool and future plans for a third therapy pool, but with budget limitations in mind, the board formed a consensus to narrow the design down further to plan for a combination of the shallow-entry and therapy pool. The board is estimating that the new design will cost approximately $5 million phased out between initial construction of the lap pool and building, and future construction of the combined pool, although the contractors are working to calculate the final estimates with modifications.
The board will use the future option for the combined pool to market towards potential donors through the course of a capital fundraising campaign, a goal realized through discussions between board members June 10. A request for proposals from capital campaign managers closed last Thursday. The board is set to decide between several applicants later this month.
At the meeting, the board also approved an application for a Certificate of Participation bond valued at $1.5 million to see the construction completed while enabling the board to have cash-flow to fund capital costs. According to Commissioner Steve Harris, if the COP bond is approved, it would equal to “$90- to $95 thousand per year in debt service.”
With around $4.35 million dollars potentially committed to the pool project from donations, grants, levy funds — including the COP bond, not yet approved by the state financiers — the board is looking at a goal of raising around $1.15 million to complete the funding of the pool.
“I think we have a viable means to get to what we want to … at this particular time,” Harris said, citing the separate zero-entry/therapy pool as an incentive for a future capital campaign.
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