Pool study would cost Othello at least $16K

City to talk to TSE Engineering, hoping to pare price down

OTHELLO — TSE Engineering has told city leaders that the study aimed at putting together a proposal for a new pool levy would cost the city at least $16,000, with community outreach expenses bringing that figure up at least another $5,000 and as much as $15,000 more.

The price of the study has been deemed as too high for the fiscally conservative city whose council's approval the study needs to go forward.

The next move of the Othello pool supporters will be to talk to the TSE representatives to find out if there are ways to bring that price down, probably by picking and choosing from the $16,000-list of services the firm offered.

"They (TSE) might not agree to pick and choose," Mayor Jeannie Sanders said, adding that she wanted to talk to TSE reps as early as today.

Another way to cut some costs down would be for the city to pass on the community outreach services TSE is offering. Sanders explained that the Othello Pool Committee itself was formed to reach out for the community. This would make TSE's offer unnecessary, at least in that regard.

For now, the committee is moving forward as it waits for TSE's response. The committee's next meeting will be May 4 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

\Before that, the city will receive TSE's response, will pass it on to the committee. If in the affirmative, they will take the modified study proposal to City Council on April 25 at 7 p.m.

After TSE's proposal issue gets ironed out, it will be time to put together another proposal, this time a pool proposal for the voters, which is already undergoing several changes.

For one, the Othello Pool Committee has decided to drop the idea of an aquatic center, choosing to go instead with a pool. This move is meant to make it more palatable for the frugal tastes of the city.

The opinion among members of the committee is that an aquatic center tends to have, or sound like it has more bells and whistles than a regular pool, hence making it more expensive to build, at least on paper.

By going with a pool, the committee has chosen to focus on having a lap swimming area, a smaller slide, a smaller regular swimming area. If approved and built, the pool will also be closer to a square shaped area than to the curves and turns of an aquatic center such as Moses Lake's.

Still, the hopes of the committee are pinned on TSE agreeing to pare down the list of services and the price of the proposal.

"If we can get TSE on for a reasonable amount, the city council will get behind it," Sanders said, noting that the city leaders are already wary of spending too much.

"We already spent $25,000 once and it didn't work," she said, referring to a prior study the city paid for during one of the two prior tries to pass a levy for a new pool, both of which have failed.

In other pool committee business, the committee has decided to aim for a September election rather than to wait until November to put their proposed levy on the ballot.

Last, they are still looking for one co-chair to lead the committee. Hiawatha Middle School principal Heather Franklin has offered to be the other co-chair. Committee members, as well as city leaders prefer that the people leading the group have nothing to do with city government.

"We can lead the phone-calling, teh fund-raising, but we can't be chairs," Sanders said of herself and her fellow city leaders. "I want them to be grassroots meetings.