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Council puts off pool contract

By Estuardo Garcia - | May 16, 2007

The people have spoken. The old Tonganoxie swimming pool will be torn down and a new one built in its place.

But City Council members had a few questions that needed answers at Monday night’s council meeting before they entered into a contract with Sullivan Palmer Architects and Bohl & Associates for the design and construction of the new pool.

Among the questions: What’s the actual breakdown and scope for additional engineers and consultants included in the contract? How much time will the designers spend at the site? And, from Council member Paula Crook, what happened in McPherson that caused the town to be unsatisfied with its pool?

Jim Sullivan, of Sullivan Palmer Architects, was the project architect on McPherson. He said he contacted Paul Katzer, superintendent for the McPherson parks department, which oversees the town’s aquatic center.

“I called him again today and asked if there was an about-face to this and he said, ‘No we love your company and you’ve done great work,'” Sullivan said.

Ford Bohl of Bohl and Associates said there was a problem with the heater in the McPherson pool and that heater was out of its two-year warranty.

“Sometimes your in-house maintenance doesn’t know how to describe a problem to the manufacture or the pool builder,” Bohl said. “We haven’t heard that kind of thing except when somebody doesn’t take care of it or let someone know there’s a problem.”

Bohl said he calls all of his firm’s pools on their start up day to make sure everything is going well.

For now the contract has been sent back to Sullivan Palmer Architects for review.

The council approved a special meeting on Monday, May 21, to review the contract and vote for approval.

City Clerk Kathy Bard said it was important to get the contract approved as quickly as possible.

“We want construction to be ready to go by the time the pool closes in mid August,” she said.