The Centralia Pool Committee made their final report to the city council Thursday night saying the city should not pursue a new outdoor pool at the present time.
Committee member Amanda Marshall noted she and the rest of the committee started their work excited about being able to bring a new outdoor pool to the city, but what they found didn’t make the project feasible.
“At this time the committee decided to halt full construction until more financial resources are available. When we did the community survey we had 72.9% voted they wanted a new pool, and the highest percentage wanted the most expensive pool at $9.655 million. However, we had 51% didn’t want to raise sales tax and 62% didn’t want to raise their property tax.”
Marshall noted Salem and Mt. Vernon already had facilities that were available to Centralia residents and were currently losing money on operations which they didn’t think the city of Centralia could afford. Marshall says even construction of a splash pad, which wasn’t favored by survey respondents, would lose an estimated $30,000 a year. She said the committee feared the bare-bones smaller pool would be similar to the old pool and would not be utilized.
The council was told 724 completed the survey out of the city’s 12,000 residents.
The committee was thanked for their work by City Manager Kory Smith and the council. Members of the council expressed disappointment with the findings and indicated they may bring up a new outdoor pool again in the future.
