Consultant to be hired to examine Othello pool

OTHELLO — Othello city officials will hire a consultant to make a detailed examination of the city’s swimming pool to give city residents some options in repairing or replacing it. Othello City Council members allocated up to $150,000 in the 2025 budget to pay for an evaluation at the regular meeting Nov. 12.  

Othello Mayor Shawn Logan said an engineer working with the city’s insurance company did a preliminary examination of the structure. 

“A forensic engineer. That forensic engineer is evaluating the structural capability of the pool,” Logan said. “But those are preliminary – they are not in-depth examination. That’s what we need, is in-depth examinations.” 

City officials announced in April the pool would be closed indefinitely after an investigation revealed the structure had suffered significant damage. The pool was insured; city officials have been waiting for an answer from the insurers. Logan told council members during a Nov. 4 budget workshop the insurance evaluation has slowed down the process. 

“The community – and the city council – has been waiting for the risk pool to evaluate the claim,” Logan said. “They evaluated it initially and said there was no coverage, it was wear and tear.” 

The follow-up examination is the first phase of a possible insurance settlement, he said. The pool was insured for about $1.9 million, with the water circulation system insured for about $450,000.  

“We’re going to get a final determination what, if anything, the risk pool is going to cover,” Logan said.  

Whether or not there is an insurance settlement, Logan told council members it’s time to start making decisions.  

“We found out in April we weren’t going to able to open the pool, and we’re already in November and we’re still waiting on the insurance company,” Logan said. “But we need to begin to move.” 

Logan said the assessment should answer some basic questions. 

“The advice we’ve been given is that a consultant that is an architect, who has access to all the different engineering types that are needed to evaluate what the existing problems are in the pool and help us identify whether we can fix the existing pool,” Logan said. “Whether it’s safe to fix the pool, or whether we would have to tear out the pool. Or, with the amount of water leak we’ve had, whether we would be able to even rebuild in that location safely.” 

The pool used 34 million gallons of water in 2023, the last year it was open. City employees suspected a leak; upon investigation they discovered it had been leaking for years, possibly since it was opened in 2007. The leaks not only damaged the structure but eroded the ground under and around it.  

Logan said the evaluation of the site and existing structure is crucial to the decision-making process. 

“Once we answer those questions, I think it will be a lot easier for us to then begin to present to the community,” Logan said. “The architectural firm will be able to help us put some renderings together with some potential price tags and be able to help us with the design of a new pool, if that’s the direction it goes.” 

The city appointed an “Aquatics Task Force” after the pool closure to evaluate options for repair or replacement. Task force Chair Chris Dorow said in an earlier interview that options run all the way from repairing the existing pool to replacing it without expanding the site to building an aquatic center with event space. Logan said some of the people he’s talked to are interested in an indoor facility. 

Dorow told council members Aug. 26 that whatever the answer is, it’s going to extend beyond 2025. 

“The pool will most likely be closed for at least three years,” Dorow said. “There are things that could change that timeline, both decrease it and increase it, that are still in flux, that we are still determining. But we should know and plan that this is going to be a little bit of a long process to get something really good that we want.” 

A splash pad is planned for Kiwanis Park, but Logan told council members Nov. 4 in his opinion the city still needs a pool. It’s an important community service, he said. 

“The community is concerned,” he said. “And even though we’re building a splash park, that’s different than a swimming pool.”