CHICKASHA – The City Council voted to spend more than half a million dollars to renovate the swimming pool and the splash pad in Shannon Springs Park.
The pool was constructed in 1985, records show. The facility “has multiple leaks and needs repair,” Parks and Recreation Director Spencer Winzenried noted.
The council awarded a contract of up to $460,000 to Sunbelt Pools of Edmond, the lone bidder, to replace the pool’s filtration system, filter gauges, a couple of pumps, perimeter inlet piping, and all electric panels and wiring in the f ilter room.
The pool “will have the same shell, but everything behind the scenes will be new,” Winzenried said.
The project cost was included in the city’s Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget.
The pool loses 4 inches of water, “about 15,000 gallons,” each day from evaporation and leaks, Winzenried said. “A dozen leaks were found during a pressure check.”
The 6,132 square-foot pool holds 236,809 gallons of water and ranges in depth from 2’6” to 13’, Paddock Enterprises consultants from Oklahoma City wrote in a report they submitted in September 2023 after performing a thorough inspection of the facility.
Responding to a question Nov. 4 from Councilwoman Kea Ginn, Winzenried said a completely new swimming pool would cost $12 million to $15 million “and would last 40 years.” For “a complete refurb, you’re looking at spending $5 million to $7 million a nd it would last for 20 to 30 years.”
The repairs that will be performed by Sunbelt Pools should extend the life of the pool for “seven to 10 more years,” he said.
In a related matter, a contract of up to $53,900 to ov erhaul the Shannon Springs splash pad was awarded by the City Council to RJR Enterprises of Rogers, Ark., the lower of two bidders for the work.
The splash pad was built in 2007 and “some of the elements no longer work,” Winzenried informed the council. Renovations will include rehabilitation of the water control valve and box, replacement of the control equipment, replacement of the underground water supply pipeline, and removal of both the candy cane feature and the vertical feature.
Repairs to the facility will be financed with $60,000 the state Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust approved via its Healthy Incentive Program Grant for Communities program.
Winzenried said the contractors “say they can” have the repairs done in time for the pool and the splash pad to open on Memorial Day next year. “That’s the plan,” he told Southwest Ledger. “I hope so.”