The St. Joseph Aquatic Park sits empty on a cold January afternoon. The city council postponed a resolution for significant improvements at the facility in order to weigh other options for swimming in St. Joseph.
The calendar says January, but that didn’t stop city officials from debating the future of municipal pools in St. Joseph.
The St. Joseph City Council held a work session Tuesday devoted to the Aquatic Park, a facility that hasn’t fully opened since before the pandemic. The Aquatic Park was supposed to receive $7.7 million in upgrades, much of it for the lap pool that dates to 1955, but rising costs are causing city officials to consider other options.
It’s one of the bigger projects in the $60 million parks tax that voters approved in 2021, but now city council members are expressing concerns about a price tag that’s risen from $5.5 million in 2020 to $7.7 million in 2021 and more than $8 million today.
“It’s a three-month pool,” said Mayor John Josendale. “We’re going to spend $8 million. I have concerns about that.”
For years, city officials have known these facilities to be both a drain on finances and an amenity that’s essential for a city of 75,000. In 2014, Hyde Pool closed on the South Side due to high maintenance costs and a shortage of lifeguards. The city built a splash pad in its place.
City Parks Director Chuck Kempf led the council members Tuesday through a history of what was once the Noyes Pool, including details of some structural issues that forced the closure of the lap pool. Newer portions of the Aquatic Park, including the lazy river and the activity pool, opened in 2005.
“We dealt with a lot of problems for a lot of years,” Kempf said.
Kempf said the parks department has worked with the contractor on options for reducing the size of the lap pool project at the Aquatic Park and reducing the costs.
Tuesday’s meeting was filled with area swim coaches and parents of youth who are passionate about swimming. Josendale and some council members expressed interest in an enclosed pool that could be used all year and would be more appealing to competitive swimmers. But that comes at a cost, and Councilman Madison Davis said during the meeting that the council would have to balance the needs of competitive swimmers with members of the community who will want someplace to cool off in the summer.
“We need a pool in St. Joseph,” Davis said. “That’s why these things are on the parks tax. It comes down to, do we have the dollars?”
Josendale agreed that St. Joseph needs a pool, but he wants to make sure the council uses its money wisely rather than rushes into a massive project that provides a seasonal benefit.
In the end, council members didn’t put the brakes on the Aquatic Park project, but the foot is not as firmly on the gas. The mayor wants to explore other options, including possibly a different arrangement with Missouri Western State University on its pool.
“Does it make more sense to create a facility that can be used 12 months of the year?” Josendale said. “We’re looking at how do we do this right.”
Greg Kozol can be reached at greg.kozol@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowKozol.
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