City commissioners on Tuesday approved a nearly $550,000 payment to an architecture firm to design a renovation of the downtown pool that maintains its current configuration.
But most of the discussion centered on broader frustrations from a community divided over what they’d like included in the pool renovations.
City commissioners approved a pool renovation in August that would have added new features like a lazy river but cut open swim space roughly in half. After more than 1,000 people signed a petition asking the city to reconsider — now up to nearly 1,800 signatures — the commission discarded the plan and asked city staff to look into a renovation that maintained the pool’s current configuration.
The item was originally on the commission’s consent agenda but was pulled for separate consideration and prompted nearly an hour of public comment and discussion.
Holly Krebs, who organized the petition asking the city to maintain the pool’s open swim space, voiced broad concerns about the public engagement process and early pool designs, arguing they didn’t reflect the community’s desires. She asked the commission to appoint an oversight committee for the rest of the project.
“We believe that a citizen committee that continually reviews and advises on this project will ensure better outcomes,” she said. “We also believe this committee is needed to hold city staff and its consultants accountable for creating a pool renovation that reflects rather than ignores our community’s feedback.”
Several others, too, spoke in favor of maintaining the open swim space at the pool and raised concerns about the community engagement process around the pool’s design.
Some other commenters said they felt the city’s decision to forgo the earlier design devalued input they gave during the public engagement process.
Dustin Stumblingbear said he was looking forward to teaching his grandchildren to swim in the lazy river. He said he filled out the engagement surveys and had good faith his participation was being valued.
“I’m a community member who got other community members to participate in these surveys,” he said. “People shouldn’t be able to show up at the last minute and say, ‘Because we didn’t participate earlier, you’ve got to do what we want now.’”
Commissioner Brad Finkeldei said he’d heard from community members expressing disappointment that the commission had axed the lazy river plan. He said the possible creation of a new engagement committee should be left to city staff and it would need to be reflective of the entire community.
“I certainly believe this is a process that has a whole lot of people who have a lot of care about the pool,” he said.
Mayor Bart Littlejohn affirmed his support for city staff. Littlejohn said he was excited to see Cori Wallace, director of communications and community relations, taking over community engagement on the project.
“I hold the belief, and I continue to hold the belief, that our staff works for the best for our citizens and community of Lawrence,” he said.
Commissioner Amber Sellers, who said she didn’t think the contract with the architecture firm should have been pulled from the consent agenda for discussion, said it was disheartening to hear the critiques of city staff. She called them some of the hardest-working people.
“I have worked alongside and seen individuals in these settings do some of the most creative and innovative things,” she said.
Sellers said she didn’t like the idea of a new oversight committee because the city already worked to consolidate committees and create systems to discuss topics important to the community. She floated the idea of a new pool in west or south Lawrence with a lazy river someday in the future.
“I don’t want to dismiss the fact that we have boards and commissions who work on our behalf and that it is us that has to do the work to give them the charge and scope to do the things that we hear from the community,” she said. “And if we don’t, that’s just as much on us as it is on anyone else.”
If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
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.
Latest Lawrence news:
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Mark Potts/Lawrence Times
