The Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday favored a plan to maintain the Outdoor Aquatic Center’s current design and rehabilitate much of the infrastructure.
The decision comes after more than 1,700 people signed a petition asking the commission to nix its past plan to redesign and renovate the pool because the plan would have cut by half the pool’s open swim space.
Luis Ruiz, the city’s director of parks, recreation, arts and culture, outlined two main options for pool renovations.
The first was the previously approved new design for the pool, which would have cost around $6.1 million and included a new lazy river, splash pad and more, but cut open swim space in half.
A second option, as presented to the commission, would repair the current pool configuration, include a new slide and shade structure and cost an estimated $5.8 million.
The city will now explore what a renovation of the pool’s current structure would look like and how much it would cost, as well as what optional additions like a new slide should be included.
Mayor Bart Littlejohn said he preferred the option to repair the current pool, with the potential for a future multi-phase capital improvement project to create new amenities at the pool.
Vice Mayor Mike Dever said the option to keep the current pool design would reduce cost risks and better reflect the public’s current desires.
“I think the user feedback we got from the public here, and then, of course, for months, I mean, I just don’t understand how we could move forward in good faith with the first plan that we submitted,” Dever said.
More than 30 people spoke against the previously approved new concept, ranging from 5 years old to 87 years old.
A video featured a handful of kids aged 5 to 12, asking the commission to not shrink the pool.
“Why are they breaking down the pool?” 5-year-old Rainn said. “It’s better the way it is.”
Holly Krebs is an organizer of a petition asking the commission to not shrink the pool’s open swim space that has garnered more than 1,700 signatures. She told the commission the open swim area is the primary purpose of the public pool and axing it for other features like a lazy river would make it less usable for much of the city.
She said the group has five requests for the commission: don’t reduce the square footage of the outdoor pool; do not remove the lap lanes; fix the pool bath houses; rebuild the shallow pool separate from the main pool; and perform any additional required maintenance on the existing pool.
Lawrence resident Anne Underwood said the outdoor pool is “glorious.”
“It’s a community treasure, and it’s a remarkable public resource for our city,” Underwood said. “We hope our comments tonight will help you see how valuable the pool is to our community, and recognize that our city should invest in maintaining and improving it, rather than shrinking it.
Many members of local swim teams spoke about their concerns about how the new design would remove the 50-meter length from the pool, a necessity for competitive training.
“At every step in the public engagement process, the swim team repeatedly requested that the city retain the pool’s long course lap lanes,” said Zach Andregg, a member of the Lawrence Masters swim team. “But even from the very first public meeting, Parks and Rec always said retaining the 50-meter lap lanes was not an option. Our research indicates this was a decision Parks and Rec unilaterally made with no public input before the community engagement process began, even though they never evaluated the cost of retaining this part of the pool.”
Many public commenters were frustrated with the public engagement process, which they said didn’t adequately gauge the public’s desire for a new pool.
Much of the public engagement surveys asked survey participants to rank what they’d want at a renovated pool. But commenters argued that when people rank options like they did in the survey, they don’t consider what they might lose.
Ruiz said the city has not ignored the public’s comments and had worked to directly engage with the petition organizers about their concerns.
“I just want to make sure that, you know, the sentiment that we’re not listening is not really factual,” Ruiz said. “We are trying to listen, and that’s why we’re here today, listening to 40 great people who have an opinion of what we should be providing, and we want to honor that.”
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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