It appears moving forward with the City of Yuma’s swimming pool project is being put on hold due to high projected costs.
The Yuma City Council decided at the end of a work session this past Tuesday afternoon to cancel a special meeting planned for that evening to discuss costs and possibly approving the construction contract with Centerre Construction.
That consensus came at the end of an hour-long work session with Essenza Architecture. That was held following a somewhat contentious special meeting last week with Essenza and Centerre representatives, who participated remotely.
Council members voiced displeasure when told construction costs were sitting at $5.8 million, not including soft costs.
City electors last November approved a $6 million bond issue and temporary sales tax increase for a new swimming pool, with the goal of $5.2 million for construction.
Essenza representatives started going over potential savings, such as less expensive lighting and fencing, and bigger items such as eliminating the dive well and play structures, while adding other less expensive amenities.
Mayor Tim McClung said he did not want to hear about fencing.
“We have hired an architect and contractor to get near that number ($5.2 million) and we are not near that number,” he said, noting that the current numbers put the project over the bond authorization.
“Just because we live in northeast Colorado please do not insult our intelligence,” McClung added. “It’s not a good mistake to make.”
Council member Jené Rutz said everything that made the new pool attractive is being taken out.
The Essenza representative kept referring that typically getting all pricing in place is a six-month process, but the Yuma project is on a tighter timeline. Centerre has many bids from subconstractors, and now more fine-tuning final costs.
Council members voiced disinterest in going through a list of items to decide what should or should not remain included in the project. Those documents had not been sent to the city yet. The council was told they would be emailed right after the meeting.
“Get us those documents to review,” McClung said, “in the meantime you need to get serious. We have a budget, but you don’t seem to be listening.”
There was some pushback as a Centerre representative said he felt the level of effort on pricing and design has been “monumental for this project” adding that the effort exceeds the budget at this stage.
McClung noted that the council pulled the plug on a pool renovation project a couple of years ago because the price kept increasing, adding it had been made clear to Essenza when this current effort began.
The mayor said the city was willing to go up to $5.5 million and “that’s as far as we’re going…come back with $5.5 million and how we need to get there.”
That led to this past Tuesday’s work session with Essenza attended by Mayor Tim McClung, Mayor Pro-tem Nathan O’Neal, Michael Fitzsimmons, Jené Rutz and Mark Shay. Dan Baucke and Jerry Thompson was absent. The Essenza representatives participated remotely.
McClung said the total cost of $6.5 million, including soft costs, was $1 million too high.
Dane Vierow with Essenza said one suggestion was eliminating the kiddie pool, but the diving well would remain. The kiddie pool is separate from the main pool, so eliminating that would save significantly in piping, electrical, decking, fencing and lights. He added that since the city has a new splash pad nearby, having no kiddie pool might make it more acceptable to the community.
The play structures at the zero-entry location could be replaced with less-expensive items, and the piping for a possible future lazy river also can be taken out.
“There is a path to get to the $1 million reduction,” Vierow said, “…we have a way to get there.”
There was discussion about the size of the bathhouse, and the costs of the equipment and amenities going into that.
McClung said the council needs a hard number, not an estimate, on the savings of eliminating a kiddie pool because there will be a lot of feedback from the community. He noted that there still is the zero-entry, but if a youngster had an accident there, the whole pool would have to be closed down, drained and refilled.
O’Neal asked why numbers were brought to the council that are way outside the scope initially provided by the city. Vierow said the costs are from Centerre, and Essenza has been working with them to get those reduced.
He said the plan can be redesigned and priced but it would take some time, at least three weeks or more.
Council members voiced the continued frustrations with the pool project not being what was told the public, and desire to get it right for the community. McClung said the council has been telling the community there would be a drop slide, diving well, zero-entry with toy equipment, a recreational swimming area and a kiddie pool.
“If you have to make it smaller to keep it all, make it happen,” he told Vierow, adding if that is a now, then the city will have to start over. “We’re not going to do a bait-and-switch with the community. We’re going to do this project, Dane, it’s just going to be a little different.”