New committee to dive into costs for aquatic center

An ad hoc committee will be tasked with ironing out details for a new aquatic center in Cape Girardeau whose final price tag has not been determined.

Former Cape Girardeau mayors Jay Knudtson and Harry Rediger are leading the planning effort seeking to dive into project costs, it was announced Tuesday in a news release.

The committee will include Mayor Bob Fox and Cape Girardeau School Board president Jeff Glenn. Knudtson said the group also will have representatives of the city’s parks department and park board, the general public, Southeast Missouri State University, the competitive swimming community and Notre Dame, Saxony and Jackson high schools.

Cape Girardeau, Notre Dame, Saxony and Jackson all have swim teams.

The first meeting of the committee is expected by late May, according to Knudtson. The names of all those serving on the committee will be announced before the first meeting, he said.

Knudtson said the goal is to finalize plans for the center before the end of the year.

The new advisory committee will build upon the work of a joint city-school committee that spent months last year exploring site and concept options for an aquatic center.

According to the news release, the committee will work with a consultant “to obtain updated estimates on construction and operating costs for a new pool.”

In subsequent interviews with the Southeast Missourian, Knudtson and Rediger said the planning process likely will involve a different consultant from the one used by a joint city-school committee last year. The city and the Cape Girardeau School District would hire and pay for the consultant, Rediger said.

Knudtson said, “The ultimate goal is to build a 50-meter pool.” In addition to the pool for competitive swimming, the facility also needs to include a leisure pool that would attract the general public, he said.

Ultimately, it comes down to dollars and cents.

“We have to make a business decision,” said Knudtson, a Cape Girardeau banker.

The city and Cape Girardeau School District have earmarked $10 million for the project, which officials have said is not enough to build the facility they want.

Knudtson and Rediger are seeking to raise private funds to aid with construction.

A city parks tax, approved by voters last year, included $6 million in funding for the project.

Earlier this month, voters in the Cape Girardeau School District approved a $12 million bond issue, which earmarks $4 million toward construction of an aquatic center to replace the aging Central Municipal Pool.

But public schools superintendent Neil Glass vowed not to issue the $4 million in bonds for the project until plans have been finalized.

Only two things are certain right now: The facility would be built adjacent to Jefferson Elementary School and the city and school district would operate it.

In advance of the bond issue election, officials had discussed the possibility of involving the YMCA as a partner in the project.

But Knudtson said Tuesday at this point it appears the YMCA will not be a project partner.

Officials have said a major concern is the cost of operating an indoor aquatic center. City and school officials have estimated it could cost $1 million a year to operate.

But Knudtson said the ad hoc committee hopes, with the help of a consultant, to look at ways to trim such operating expenses.

One “outside the box” option could involve exterior sides that can be opened in the summer, eliminating the need to air-condition the building and, as a result, reducing operating costs, Knudtson said.

Rediger said he likes the idea of having a facility that could operate as an open-air aquatic center in the summer and then be closed to the elements during the winter.

Both Rediger and Knudtson said the new ad hoc group has a more defined mission than the previous aquatic committee.

“That committee was in the dream stage because we didn’t have the money,” Rediger said, referring to the fact the school district at that time had not secured its share of funding.

Both Rediger and Knudtson said meetings of the ad hoc committee will be open to the public.

Any final decisions on the project will rest with the city council and the school board, they said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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