Should Iowa City close or renovate Robert A. Lee pool?

Swimmers swim laps Friday within the pool on the Robert A. Lee Recreation Middle in Iowa Metropolis. Town is contemplating a suggestion to shut the pool as soon as a warm-water pool is added to Mercer Aquatic Middle. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Swimmers swim laps Friday within the pool on the Robert A. Lee Recreation Middle in Iowa Metropolis. A advisor says the pool is in want of pricey and intensive repairs. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Bruce Floyd, 79, of Iowa Metropolis, swims laps Friday within the pool on the Robert A. Lee Recreation Middle in Iowa Metropolis. Floyd has been swimming on the pool roughly 3 times per week since 2018. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Swimmers swim laps Friday within the pool on the Robert A. Lee Recreation Middle in Iowa Metropolis. Town is contemplating a suggestion to shut the pool as soon as a warm-water pool is added to Mercer Aquatic Middle. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — As Iowa Metropolis weighs the potential for closing the pool on the Robert A. Lee Group Recreation Middle, which town says is in want of intensive restore, residents are voicing issues over shedding a centrally situated leisure alternative.

Town is within the means of re-imagining recreation in Iowa Metropolis whereas additionally evaluating present circumstances, life span and programming of its services below the Collect Right here Recreation Grasp Plan. The draft plan consists of big-picture concepts for the subsequent 10 to fifteen years, mentioned Juli Seydell Johnson, town’s Parks and Recreation director. The aim of the grasp plan is to form the services and packages to raised serve the group.

The draft recommends including a warm-water health pool to the Mercer Park Aquatic Middle Pool and shutting the pool on the downtown Robert A. Lee middle. It additionally recommends renovating the 73-year-old Metropolis Park Pool to make it extra accessible.

The suggestions, which additionally embrace enhancements to Scanlon Gymnasium and athletic fields, have been put collectively after final 12 months’s public enter occasions and evaluation from BerryDunn, the consulting agency working with town. Town had a second part of group suggestions final month that included two open home occasions and asking residents to submit on-line feedback.

Council discusses grasp plan

The Iowa Metropolis Council mentioned the recreation grasp plan at its work session this week. The council didn’t make any choices in regards to the plan Tuesday and can doubtless proceed the dialogue at its July 12 work session.

“This can be a main factor to speak about,” Mayor Bruce Teague mentioned.

Council member John Thomas mentioned he was “very hesitant” to surrender the Robert A. Lee pool due to its central location, including that the pool is open year-round.

“For my part, the concept could be to easily decide to the situation after which rethink what that pool is in order that we get a greater match between what we’re listening to within the report,” Thomas mentioned.

Teague and Mayor Professional Tem Megan Alter each expressed desirous to get extra suggestions from residents earlier than commenting on specifics. Council members additionally mentioned the way forward for recreation in Iowa Metropolis.

“I feel we’d like enhance upon and create a greater way forward for our present services, in the beginning, however simply remember that even that’s going to have an enormous price ticket,” Alter mentioned. “We’re actually going to have to contemplate that in a really, very sensible manner.“

Residents push again

The 58-year-old pool on the Robert A. Lee Recreation Middle is in want of “intensive and costly restore,” in keeping with the consulting agency. The associated fee to totally renovate the pool and locker rooms is estimated between $4.5 and $5 million.

The advice is so as to add a heat water pool subsequent to the present Mercer Aquatic Middle pool, which is in good situation, and shut the pool at recreation middle. Including the nice and cozy water pool to Mercer is estimated at between $8.1 and $9 million.

Seydell Johnson mentioned among the many points on the Lee pool are the situation of the underground pipes, filters and pumps — “every thing that makes the pool run apart from the water.” She added its use is decrease than perceived, which residents have pushed again on.

Six Iowa Metropolis residents — Jill and Justin Fishbaugh, Anne Stapleton, Susan Mellecker, Mark Cannon and Carin Crain — co-wrote a letter to the council earlier this month. The letter, which has almost 160 signatures in assist, expressed issues in regards to the potential pool closure and advisable renovating it as a substitute.

The letter highlighted the pool’s central location, how the associated fee so as to add the nice and cozy water pool at Mercer is greater than renovating the recreation middle’s pool and the way the variety of lap lanes could be decreased.

Extra feedback at assembly

Almost 20 residents shared their ideas in regards to the draft suggestions at Tuesday’s council assembly. There have been about 40 individuals there throughout public remark.

Iowa Metropolis residents voice their opinions Tuesday on town’s recreation grasp plan, together with their desired to maintain the aesthetic of Metropolis Park Pool the identical and never closing the Robert A. Lee pool. (Izabela Zaluska/The Gazette)

Stapleton, one of many letter’s authors, instructed the council she has been swimming on the pool for 36 years. “It’s accessible to all ages and appropriate with town objectives of downtown companies that promote a walkable, city group,” she mentioned.

Different residents who spoke shared their concern in regards to the lower in lap lanes if the pool have been to shut. Residents additionally voiced the friendships they’ve fashioned.

“Iowa Metropolis has been swimming city my entire life,” mentioned Susan Mellecker, a lifelong resident of Iowa Metropolis.

“I have been heartened however not shocked by widespread assist for holding Robert A Lee pool and renovating it,” Stapleton mentioned.

Was pool constructed on prime of a bomb shelter?

Final month, Elsa Fischer, a senior advisor with BerryDunn, mentioned if the Robert A. Lee pool have been to be renovated, it could be “very pricey.” A part of the rationale for the excessive value, Fischer mentioned, is as a result of “the pool is constructed on prime of a bomb shelter.”

Each throughout Tuesday assembly and within the letter to council, residents raised issues in regards to the validity of this remark.

Iowa Metropolis architect Roland Wehner — who helped design the recreation middle, amongst different metropolis buildings, with Henry Fisk — mentioned neither the pool nor the constructing is constructed on prime of a bomb shelter. Wehner referred to the unique blueprints, that are stored on the State Historic Society in Iowa Metropolis.

Iowa Metropolis architect Roland Wehner confirmed the blueprints of the Robert A. Lee Group Recreation Middle and the pool to a gaggle of Iowa Metropolis residents in late Might. Wehner helped design the constructing within the Nineteen Sixties. (Izabela Zaluska/The Gazette)

Indicators designating the Robert A Lee Recreation Middle as a fallout shelter have been taken down in 2017. (Metropolis of Iowa Metropolis)

Seydell Johnson, town’s parks director, mentioned there is no such thing as a area below the pool however that the constructing had been designated a nuclear fallout shelter. Indicators outdoors the constructing studying “fallout shelter” have been taken down in 2017.

Additional thick concrete additionally has been found within the constructing throughout smaller renovations, Seydell Johnson mentioned. Town believes that is as a result of fallout shelter designation.

Wehner, nonetheless, instructed The Gazette the thick concrete was used for structural causes. The constructing was not designed with the intent of it being a fallout shelter and nothing was finished particularly to fulfill that requirement, Wehner mentioned.

“It simply occurs that we had initially determined that we wished a constructing that might final 100 years,” Wehner mentioned. “We picked structural parts and constructed parts that may be lasting … and so as a result of it was already designed as a greater development, it was then deemed it could be appropriate, as many different buildings across the group, as a fallout shelter.”

What’s subsequent?

The Iowa Metropolis Council is anticipated to proceed discussing the recreation grasp plan at its subsequent work session on July 12. Parks and Recreation workers is on the lookout for the council to verify the priorities and techniques so workers can proceed engaged on a ultimate model.

The Parks and Recreation Fee is predicted to assessment the ultimate plan in August or September, after which it is going to come earlier than council, Seydell Johnson mentioned. The plan additionally might be accessible to the general public.

Feedback: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com