108 year old pool looking at facelift

During the regular meeting of the El Dorado Springs City Council on Monday, June 20. The council and interested citizens discussed a plan to rejuvenate the Virginia Ryan Strain pool. The pool, built over one of the many creeks that run through El Dorado Springs has presented many maintenance problems over the years and is currently losing 20,000 gallons of water a day. In the off season, ground water comes up into the deep end of the pool basin and has to be pumped out, before the pool can be filled for the summer.
City Manager Bruce Rogers said that the pool had been privately owned until 1981 when the city purchased it. He also said that up until recently he didn’t think that renovation was an option for the pool. He said he had been in touch with various pool builders that told him that renovation could be done and it was the most practical and least expensive option. There had been discussion of possibly moving the pool to another location, but building a new pool would be twice the cost of renovation.
Rogers discussed redoing the deck, concession stand and dressing rooms and adding a splash park. He said that he could meet with some contractors within a month. He also mentioned that along with other issues, the gray bats that live in the tunnel during the summer had to be protected.
All Council members were present: Glenda Baker, Jim Luster, Gabby Kinnett, Nathan Murrell and Mayor Corey Gayman. City Clerk Kandi Baldwin was also present.
There was no decision made about the pool and Rogers said that there would be more public discussions.
During the meeting Police Chief Jarrod Schierek addressed the issue of permitting ATVs and UTVs for use on city streets. He said he would rather not deal with the issue of permitting the vehicles that are in a different class from golf carts that are permitted.
The council will review an updated ordinance at the next meeting to address the issue.
Allen Hicks asked if the council had made any headway with restoring the showers at the community building. He was told that it was still under investigation and the city was looking at finding an alarm for the door that at the end of the hall were the showers are.
Kinnett asked if the council could have a list of all city employees and what job vacancies are in each department.