By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A St. Joseph city councilmember says there has been some confusion about the financing of a new city pool.
The swimming pool at the St. Joseph Aquatic Park failed in 2019.
City councilmember Michael Grimm says the city council is talking with the YMCA about the possibility of cooperating to build an indoor pool at the new Y, agreeing to chip in $7 million if the Y could raise the rest.
“We only agreed that we would do this provided they had this whole list of things that they would do and had firm commitments on the money,” Grimm says.
St. Joseph city officials issued a statement late last month asserting an erroneous text message had been sent to citizens claiming a new swimming pool could cost up to $50 million. The text message, according to the city, did not clarify that the city council has only committed contributing $7 million of Parks Tax funding to the total cost of the pool. The YMCA has to raise the rest. The city would contribute money, likely $250,000 annually, to operate the pool.
Grimm says if a partnership with the YMCA doesn’t work out, the council will consider other options, which could include spending between $7-and-8 million to construct a lap pool at the Aquatic Park.
“We are looking at how much it would cost and where we could get the money with the possibility of building a pool at the Aquatic Center on Messanie,” Grimm says. “We’re looking at that and, still, we haven’t forgotten that. Again, it takes time to figure out how we can get that money and what it (a pool) would cost.”
Grimm contends that a new swimming pool could become a draw. He points out swimming teams from Omaha travel to Kansas City often for swimming meets and Kansas City teams make the trip to Omaha for meets.
“One of the things we look at was would they come to St. Joe to have swim meets? And the answer was yes,” according to Grimm.
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