Moses Lake board will decide on pool repairs

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake School Board members will decide, possibly as early as February, how the district will fix the high school swimming pool. The pool was at the center of a discussion about construction projects and construction money during a board work session Thursday.

The pool has been a subject of discussion for much of the school year; its cover is in disrepair and the air ventilation and heating systems are in poor condition. District officials have looked at six options, ranging from getting a new cover from the same company to getting a new building with a fabric covering to building a permanent steel or cinder block structure.

Mark Johnson, the district's executive director for business and operation, told board members Thursday the project would qualify for matching state construction funds if the board opted for a permanent cinder block building. In fact, state officials were urging the district to apply for them if the board decided on cinder block, he said.

The district has $4.4 million in its capital projects budget, Johnson said. That money was left over from previous construction projects, Sage Point Elementary School being one example, where construction costs were less than anticipated, he said.

The cinder block building would be about 12,300 square feet, slightly larger than the current building, and could include locker rooms or space for storage, Johnson said. Construction costs would be about $2.5 million, Johnson said; the state match would be about $1.6 million, with the district paying about $954,000. The district's money would come from the existing capital projects budget, he said.

That would reduce the square footage that would qualify for state construction funds if district patrons approve a construction bond for the high school, Johnson said. But the pool was included in the bond proposal rejected by voters in 2012, so that square footage wasn't included in the high school project anyway, he said.

Board member Connie Opheikens said she was concerned about the community reaction if the district worked on the pool while struggling with overcrowding at the high school. But board member Vicki Groff said she was equally concerned with public reaction if the district had an asset it couldn't use because maintenance was deferred.

Board chair Kevin Donovan said he preferred to delay the decision until after the committee working on the secondary overcrowding problem delivered its recommendation. That is expected sometime after the last community meeting March 21.

Donovan said that decision could come as early as first meeting in April, but board member Allan Burritt said the board would need more time to study the implications of the overcrowding recommendations. Johnson said June would be the latest the board would make a decision.

Groff asked how the overcrowding discussion would impact the pool. Donovan said there may be some tough decisions coming on school overcrowding, and he was reluctant to decide on spending that much money until after the overcrowding decision was announced.

But Burritt said the district has not kept up like it should with maintenance on the pool, and the longer the board waits the more expensive any fix would be. Under those circumstances he wanted to move forward, Burritt said.

Burritt, Lew Mason and Groff asked for the pool to be on the agenda for the Feb. 14 board meeting.

Johnson said there are other capital projects that may be coming up, including additional portable classrooms, remodeling the existing bus garage once the new transportation center is finished, and buying a new freezer for food service.