Pleasantville Pool Construction Delayed Until After Summer 2024
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The plan to build the new Pleasantville pool has been delayed another year.
The new construction is now scheduled to begin following the close of the 2024 swim season, with a scheduled opening targeted for Memorial Day 2025. Initially, the plan was to start work immediately after this Labor Day.
The decision to wait another year was based on information presented at last week’s Village Board work session by Superintendent of Public Works Anthony Carr. Carr had reviewed previous information presented to the board on flood mitigation in 2021 from project engineer Bob DeBruin of DeBruin Engineering.
The village requested the study after Hurricane Ida caused flooding at the Lake Street facility in 2021. The storm forced the village to end the pool season just before Labor Day weekend because the nearby Nannahagan Pond, just to the southeast of the pool, had overflowed, dumping mud and silt into the pumps and pool building, which damaged the piping, filtration, treatment and electrical systems.
DeBruin’s report showed how to mitigate and offset future flooding from the pond. Costs (based on different storm systems) ranged from $650,000 to over $1 million.
Ultimately, DeBruin’s advice was that any mitigation would not be cost-effective and that recovering from a storm like Ida would cost the village somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000, which would be a small fraction of what a flood mitigation project would cost.
But Carr argued that flood mitigation measures were in the best interests of the village to protect the new pool and the new filter building.
“It is our professional recommendation that the village consider the flood mitigation for the 25-year storm, which will safely pass the water without overflowing.”
Carr pointed out that the new pool will be slightly higher in elevation.
“Also, the pool filter building will be flood-proofed,” he said. “There are a lot of assets that the village will want to protect.”
Previously proposed mitigation efforts included dredging the pond to increase its retention capacity, raising the walls around the channel and constructing a new culvert around the south side of the pool building.
Carr estimated a 25-year storm mitigation project could cost between $250,000 and $300,000.
A mitigation plan would require additional approvals and permits from the state Department of Health, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“All permitting should be done by the end of next year,” Carr explained. “We’ve allotted 60 days for construction bids, which we estimate would start in June 2024.”
Original pool cost estimates were about $3 million, but as of last December, the estimate for the project was $4,786,000, reflecting the rising cost of materials and labor. Village officials said they would apply for grants related to watercourses and streams to offset the additional expense for mitigation.
The village has already approved authorizing a $5 million bond, which would be subject to a permissive referendum. The final cost will depend on interest rates, construction bids and the cost of materials, said Mayor Peter Scherer.
He said the project has become significantly more complicated than had been originally anticipated.
“The monies are not borrowed yet,” Scherer said. “We won’t borrow until we get closer to needing the funds.”
Scherer said the new goal is to start construction on the new pool after Labor Day and be finished before Memorial Day 2025.
“If you miss starting in September of this year, you can’t start until the following September,” he said. “The goal is not losing a pool season.”
The new pool is expected to be just over 11,000 square feet, about 20 percent larger than the current pool. The plan includes a zero-entry area, additional lap lanes, a water slide and possibly a diving board. The kiddie pool will include water geysers.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
