By Pauline Masson –
Aldermen agreed to wait until November to ask voters to approve a bond issue to fund construction of a new swimming pool but questions need to answered before drafting a ballot measure and aldermen want the public to weigh in.
If everything works the way it is hoped a new pool can be built in time to open for the 2025 swimming season. First step is public participation.
A lengthy discussion on the bond issue at the Tuesday, May 16 board meeting revealed the details that aldermen want clarified before asking voters for construction money in the form of higher property taxes.
Everybody – officials and citizens alike – seems to agree that a new, bigger, better swimming pool would be a good thing for the community. Now, aldermen want to please as many stakeholders as possible by ferreting out how big the new pool should be, how much better, and how to pay for it.
The first stumbling block for aldermen was the tentative plan that the designers presented and the park board recommended. Aldermen liked the plan, but, they said a tentative plan isn’t going to cut it. Voters need to know exactly what is going to be built before they are asked to pledge higher property taxes to pay for it. They should also have an opportunity to share their views on the elements to be included. What should stay in the tentative plan? What should come out? And what, if anything, should be added? The best way to get the best answer to those questions, aldermen said, was to create a publicly approved plan of what citizens will get for their money.
The second challenge is where construction funds will come from. Aldermen want to explore how much of the cost of the fancy aquatic center can be met from the city’s budget so the entire $6 million burden does not fall to the taxpayers.
It is also possible to scale down size of the new pool, even to the point of reducing it by half, which would also reduce building cost. But at this point, nobody is openly championing that idea. As of this writing, a big splashy (pardon the pun) pool seems to be favored.
Aldermen unanimously agreed, last Tuesday, to place a re-written bond issue on the November ballot and to immediately call for two town hall style public meetings, asking the public to review the plan and help determine what will be built.
The meetings are scheduled for Wednesday June 14 and Monday June 26 at 6:00 p.m. to 8 p.m. at city hall. Anyone with strong feelings about a new pool is urged to attend. Participants can come in any time, review the plan and talk with officials and the designers. A public notice of each meeting will be sent to Pacific residents.
The question of how much of the cost might be met with other city taxes is a more complicated matter. Aldermen will attend a public buget meeting May 22, where they will review all revenue and expenditures projected for the budget that goes into effect July 1.
Following or during that meeting, aldermen will decide how much and from which other budget line items funds might be assigned to help pay for a new pool.
This new board shows every sign of being determined to bring the citizens back into the process of deliberations on government business to, in their words, gain confidence that they are doing what citizens want.
Their repeated pleas for citizens to attend board, committee and commission meetings, email and telephone their aldermen and have a conversation all center on one theme. They want to know what the citizens want – not just the citizens who elected them, not just the citizens in their respective wards and not just registered voters – but every citizen’s opinion counts, they say.
It sounds good and suggests that now is the time for citizens who have concerns or wishes about a new swimming pool, truck traffic, downtown parking, city utility costs, or serving on a city board or commission to speak up. Here is list of aldermen and contact info.
Ward One Rafael Madrigal • email [email protected] Rick Presley [email protected] • phone 314-974-3129
Ward Two James Cleeve • email [email protected] • phone 636-686-0006 Anna Meadows • email [email protected] • phone 314-288-7800
Ward Three Debbie Kelley • email [email protected] • phone 636-751-7354 Scott Lesh • email [email protected] • phone 636-393-8121
My property taxes going up for a swimming pool is definitely a no. Sure i would love one for my back yard but i cannot afford it, And my house payment and or escrow payment cannot afford hit after hit. My SS and pension does not keep up with the cost of living. It is bad enough that we pay personal property taxes on things we have already bought, but property taxes going up for a pool that 90 per cent of us will not use is a definite no.
Build it and they will come? I live in a City of roughly 120K residents. Being a former resident of Pacific having been gone now for over 20 years and a past member of the Pacific Planning & Zoning Commission I understand people hate to have there property taxes increased for ANYTHING. However living in Peoria Illinois I have seen my property taxes raised for development for private investors which I consider “ robbery”. Use your own dime if you want to take a risk to make money, not mine. However one must consider what is in the best interest of all the residents of a City when asked to pay for something like a swimming pool. This isn’t some private development to make anybody rich. Since young people make old people like me who have been fortunate to have lived 67 years still feel useful in life I want to enhance their quality of life by investing in their future. I fully support the building of a new pool and the citizens of Pacific need to pay for it. I too draw Social Security Retirement and I agree times are hard. I also agree that if I can’t remember my days as a youth I fully have not understood my days as a senior citizen. When growing old what do you look back on? I look back to my days as a kid and want each young kid today who I hope will swim in this new pool to look back when they get old and remember that old people don’t always forget the fun we had as a child. A swimming pool reminds me of those days.
Well really Donald. That’s downright poetic. I’m betting a lot of senior citizens have the same romantic ideas about childhood that you express. Thanks for sharing.
Can’t make it to one of the pool open house events?
June 12 will be the next Pacific Park Board meeting and I believe there will be (3) Board of Aldermen meetings before the 26th. Park Board meetings are open to the public and have Public Participation in our agenda. We focus solely on the Parks inside city limits. Information is sent up to the Board of Aldermen, the Mayor and the Administration and can be an opportunity to be heard on park/pool matters.