Othello pool to get look from Seattle engineers

TSE Engineering to tell city what can be done for price of levy

OTHELLO — The dream of a new pool for the city of Othello is taking small steps towards becoming a reality.

The latest is an invitation to TSE Engineering, a Seattle firm, to come to monthly pool committee meetings and help decide what will go in the city's new pool if the levy for it is approved by voters later this year.

The levy was set at $2.85 million for 20 years last November, when it failed to reach a needed 60 percent mark by 36 votes. Mayor Jeannie Sanders said that one possibility would be to trim the levy down a bit more.

For now, City Administrator Ehman Sheldon said the role of TSE will be to tell the city what can be afforded with the money from the levy if it were to pass.

"The (pool) committee will pick and choose, total it up and the next step is to identify exactly what the committee is going to propose to the community," he said.

What the final product will bring is open to price and to what the committee feels it can sell to the community, Sheldon added. It is key for Othello to define what it wants — that is, do they want to be an attraction, a destination thanks to its aquatic park or do they just want a place for the community to go swim?

Although these community meetings are in the early stages of a third consecutive try to get the levy to pass, their importance should not be underestimated, Sheldon hinted

"If we do this right, the community may feel good about it and support it," he said.

The arrival of TSE, the firm that Sheldon said helped the city of Grandview with its aquatic park, will happen at no fee to the city; instead, they will come to one initial meeting and share their opinions on what the citizens can get for their money.

"We will see what their thoughts are" Sheldon said.

The next meeting is on April 12, at 6 p.m. at City Hall and it is open to the public.