At a special meeting earlier this week, Tyrone Borough continued to work up plans for improvements to the community swimming pool at Reservoir Park.
The effort included an update from Interim Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway and Sewer Department Superintendent Gary Barr about a visit they made to two Pittsburgh-area communities to see the pool upgrades made there.
Dannaway distributed photos of community pools in Avalon and Bellevue for council’s review. Among the photos was one depicting a children’s pool now in place in Bellevue that included some features Dannaway wanted council to consider in making their recommendations to engineer Ray Myers prior to him preparing the project for bid.
Finance Director Phyllis Garhart also explained some avenues the borough could use to fund a project that is expected to cost about $500,000. She noted the borough had $101,817 allocated in Fiscal Year 2003 CDBG grant money for the project. A suggestion was made to take money on the books for CDBG years 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005 and use it towards the swimming pool project.
She said by utilizing all the available CDBG funds for the pool project, it would allow the borough to close out a number of grants. She explained that some CDBG funds had been designated for other projects including $45,000 for engineering for Streetscape phase IIB and $10,000 for demolition clearance. If the borough used the CDBG funds for the pool project, the funds for the engineering and demolition clearance would need to be obtained from the borough’s general fund.
Garhart said if the $55,000 were paid for from the general fund, the pool project would have $359,915.39 in CDBG funding available. She also noted the borough had $200,000 earmarked in its general fund for the pool project. Combined there would be almost $560,000 in funding available for the major renovations to the adult pool and the children’s pool.
After discussion, engineer Ray Myers was directed to take the project to the next step in order that work could begin shortly after the end of the pool season in September.
After the meeting, Myers summarized the direction he had been given by council.
He said, “They want to replace the baby pool in its entirety including a new deck the whole way around it. The baby pool will have a zero entry walk-in and three different play features. In the adult pool they want to renovate it by patching and repairing concrete, putting a liner in it, removing the diving board and in its place putting a large slide in.”
Myers added, “They also have some other options that they would be bidding, if there are enough funds, to install a second adult slide in the adult pool as well as replacing the deck around the adult pool.”
Garhart presented a breakdown sheet to council, which showed an estimated cost for the project including engineering at $467,800. If the borough decided to include certain bid alternates the cost would rise to $572,800. After the meeting, Garhart said her figures did not include an additional $40,000 for the additional adult pool slide.
