Designs unveiled for city pool project

LIMA — Designs for the Lima Aquatic Center are revealing how close the project is to fruition. In January, the city of Lima unveiled three renderings created by Brandstetter Caroll Inc. for the public to see. Since the meeting, the city and the organization are now in the final stages of design creation.

Lima Aquatic Center

Throughout the year, the City of Lima hosted public meetings receiving suggestions for use of the pool. Community members recommended activities to be held at the aquatic center including fitness programs, movie nights and adult-only lap swims.

City Engineer Ian Kohli weighed in on the project.

“During the summer it will operate similarly to Schoonover and have a summer school recreation,” said Kohli. “We are also hoping to have a summer swim league as part of the local league that has swimming in the area. In winter, the city school has said they are interested in doing swim programs for the students. We have gotten interest from local high schools and local colleges to use it for their competitive swimming. We definitely got interest from the community to use it for adult laps and have different community events there.”

Kohli also said Bluffton University has shown the most interest to use the facility in the winter.

“All the local high schools are looking to use it for their athletic programs,” said Kohli. “The facility will not be large enough to accommodate all the high schools. The Lima YMCA will still be a big part of that. The Lima YMCA is actually set up to better host large meets during the winter just because they have a lot more room. They have a gymnasium to house all the kids in.”

Funding

In a previous meeting, Mayor Sharetta Smith said the ‘talk’ of a pool came forth before her administration. The City of Lima decided years later to move forward following the availability of funding through the American Rescue Plan Act. Smith said the decision then became clear.

The City of Lima gave $4 million, Lima City Schools provided $2.4 million and $2.4 million was provided by the state. The project is completely funded at $9.8 million.

According to the city, the yearly cost of operation will be $650,000. The city plans to provide $60,000 per year to help with costs.

“The city knows we will have to subsidize for the operating cost to a certain extent,” said Kohli. “We are also looking towards user fees. We will go after and see if there are any grants that can help with that. We are looking to see if there is interest in creating an endowment to help offset some of those fees too.”

Coming to a better understanding

The City of Lima, Lima schools and the Lima YMCA have all agreed to play a role in the new aquatic center. The three entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding designating a specific role for each organization.

“The city of Lima and the public works department, we have really taken the lead on the project. But it has been a collaboration between the City of Lima, the YMCA and the Lima City Schools,” said Kohli. “Right now we are working with the Lima YMCA. Their main partnership is to staff the aquatic center and be responsible for the day-to-day operations and routine maintenance.”

Kohli also said the city of Lima schools previously had the idea of building an aquatic center but decided to partner in this project.

Lima schools hope to utilize the space to educate students on swimming. Lima City Schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman weighed in on the importance of this project.

“It would be our goal as a school district to make sure we have access to the facility for swim education starting at the elementary grade levels,” said Ackerman. “That was a big one for us. Over the years (since I have been here) we have had several students die from drowning accidents. We also know that a large percentage of our student population does not know how to swim so that is important to us.”

Ackerman clarified that Lima schools students have had drowning accidents elsewhere in the past, not at the school.

Following the opening of the pool, Ackerman said the school plans to begin with lessons right away.

“We would have that written into our curriculum and we would be ready to go,” said Ackerman. “It would just become a part of our physical education curriculum.”

Ackerman says that feedback from students and parents has been positive. Both are looking forward to what the future holds.

“The student’s feedback is that a lot of them don’t know how to swim,” said Ackerman. “A lot of them are afraid of water so they are very open to and willing to take an opportunity to learn. The parents see it as a tremendous opportunity for their students to gain yet another life skill.”

Schnoover’s Future

Many in the community wonder what is next for Schnoover Pool. Kohli said the city is getting feedback from the community and ideas for how to move forward.

“The intent right now is to repurpose the pool house,” said Kohli. “The pool itself would suggest a very good opportunity to repurpose it into a skate park. There is a lot of extra room out there so we are looking at, long-range, putting a splash pad out there and a playground out there. A pickleball court has been suggested. Those are all things we are looking to explore.”

Although there are numerous ideas for repurposing the land, Kohli said there is no ‘dedicated source’ funding at this time for the future project.

“Overall, it has been exciting to see the community, the city schools and the YMCA all come together to make this project happen,” said Kohli. “We are still working through it and we still have to get it built but I do think it will be a very good edition for the community and it will improve the quality for everyone in Allen County.”

Kohli said the city is hoping to sell the project to a contractor in the fall.

“Construction will be all of 2024,” said Kohli. “We hope to start to open it during the winter of 2024 and then the really big opening would be the summer of 2025.”

Additional renderings are available on the city’s website.

Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.