Byron rejects $9.2M pool proposal

Dreams of a new aquatic center in Byron sank last Tuesday, Nov. 5, when the public resoundingly voted against it, 1,098 to 152.
Byron City Administrator Mary Blair-Hoeft said the proposal results clearly show that the public doesn’t want to pay the estimated $9,181,000 for a new aquatic center.
“Obviously, the people of Byron didn’t want to have that much on their taxes. However, we had a lot of confusion at the polls, people thought there was a school referendum on the ballot too. People thought there was, but there wasn’t, and that is because the school did a survey about a potential referendum about six to eight weeks ago so people misunderstood,” she said.
She believes that the public’s confusion caused some people to reject the aquatic center.
“I think the distance between the yes’s and the no’s may not have been so drastic. Because people are afraid so now the school’s going to do it next year or whenever that is,” Blair-Hoeft said.
The school referendum was one of the concerns that she heard the public voice at the previous Tuesday’s, Oct. 29, open house.
“I heard about the school referendum and I heard about the tax increase, that it’s too much. One of the messages I heard is they feel like they pay so other people can use their facilities so why would we build such a big aquatic center and pay it on our taxes so people can come here to use it,” she said. “I think that stems from the open enrollment and so that’s always been troubling to the taxpayers.”
While the taxpayers may not like it, Byron’s current pool is running on fumes.
“We knew our pool has met its life so we had an analysis done on the existing pool to say, ‘Can we do something here, and if so what would that be.’ Well, right away they knew that the size was an issue. We didn’t have enough land there to accommodate a larger, bigger pool and just to bring the current pool up to code, it was over $2 million dollars,” she said.
Blair-Hoeft said a committee of volunteers worked closely with a consultant to create a plan for a new community aquatic center.
“When they asked the city council for a budget, the council declined to give that to them so they said, ‘Whatever you bring forward, we will support,’” she said.
Despite the council’s support, the committee’s plan was voted down.
Now the question remains: what’s next?
“We put a few hundred-thousand into it probably five years ago and at the time it was really difficult for the council to decide if that money should be spent on that pool. It’s a lot of money and you’re never guaranteed how long it will last, so they were hoping to get five years out of it,” she said. “Now, I’ve been asked it by some of my elected officials, ‘How long will it last?’ I say, ‘I think that’s a really difficult question to say, anyone of those pumps or the floor [could go].’ It’s like how long is a used car going to last. You can take it to the mechanic, you can say these all work today.”
Blair-Hoeft said the city officials were very happy that pool didn’t have any mechanical problems last year.
However, “We do have some decisions to make about the inside of the pool, the surface. We want to address it for next summer. We need to know if that’s what the council wants to do,” she said. “[The maintenance] is not enough for a vote, it’s $100,000, but it’s still a lot of money so how many times do you put money into a used car. That’s a decision that has to be made.”