He mentioned that a scum line inside the pool basin was never scrubbed off and that a section of exterior fence that was bent in a windstorm was not adequately fixed.

“That fence should have been fixed already before the winds of  March came,” Coryea said. “To me, it should have been done last fall when it occurred.”

Mayor Delores Dalke said she would check the city’s insurance policy and “get the fence company out here.”

Several other issues came up during the discussion, not the least of which was that no one has been hired and trained to manage the pool this summer.

“Nancy Ronto (the city’s pool consultant) is very concerned about the fact that we don’t have a qualified manager who’s going to school to be approved to run the pool,” Dalke said. “I don’t know that there are any applicants at this point.”

Also surfacing during the discussion was that a water pipe that froze and burst this winter inside the bathhouse has yet to be fixed.

That, in turn, has prevented the watering of landscaped grass and trees around the exterior of the pool.

“We’re lucky it rained last week, because we’re losing the grass out there and all those new trees and plantings because there’s no way to water them,” Dalke said.

Another project that is yet to be completed is the hard surfacing of the entry road off of D Street that runs along the east edge of the pool grounds and leads to the Sports Complex.

In his engineer’s report, Bob Previtera said ditches would need to be added to either side of that road to aid in drainage.

Councilor Shelby Dirks suggested that APAC-Kansas be contacted about hard-surfacing the road while the company is in town working on Adams Street.

Coryea said he thought the resurfacing should have occurred last fall or winter, when few people use the road. Now, with the start of softball, youth baseball and tennis seasons, traffic has again picked up.

Vehicles driving along the gravel road throw a lot of dust into the air, and much of it drifts into the pool area, Coryea said.

“We’ve got this new toy now, and somehow we have to convince everyone that it should be our pride and joy in town,” Coryea said of the aquatic center. “It should be a high priority, and it doesn’t seem to be.”

Dalke said the pool contractor, Carrothers Construction Co., still has small tasks to address. At a previous meeting, the council withheld paying $15,000 from Carrothers’ final payment request of $20,000 in order to motivate some action.

As of the April 3 meeting, Carrothers had not appeared on the scene.

Write Comment

Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
Title:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6