Supporters of an indoor aquatic center in Maumelle are hoping for one last chance Monday to persuade the Maumelle City Council to place the project before voters.
The City Council voted 6-2 on July 7 to strike the $7.65 million aquatic center project from a proposed bond issue expected to go to voters in the Nov. 4 general election. The council also voted 7-1 to remove a companion one-fourth percentage-point city sales tax increase that city officials say would be necessary to pay to operate the aquatic center. Aldermen had previously voted to include both in an election package.
Three bond projects remain for the election. Voters will be asked to approve extending Maumelle's 6.6-mill property tax rate to fund those projects. In 2012, city voters decided to continue the tax rate for eight more years.
Pool supporters have sent "well over a dozen" emails to the mayor and city aldermen, asking for the matter to be reconsidered during Monday's 6 p.m. council meeting, Mayor Mike Watson said last week. The council's deadline for setting the ballot will be its Aug. 18 meeting, Watson said.
Raising the issue for a vote again would require one of the aldermen who voted to remove the pool from the bond package to make a motion to reconsider, with another of those six seconding the motion. Then it would require another vote of the council. Aldermen Rick Anderson and Jan Hogue were the only two to favor the indoor pool in the July 7 vote, and Hogue's was the only vote to retain the sales tax question.
"It will be difficult to bring back up," Watson said. "I do think there will be some supporters for the pool that will be in attendance there [Monday]. But I have not heard anyone [on the council] indicate they're going to reconsider it."
Phil Bullington, host for a Facebook page that serves as a forum for discussion and information about the indoor aquatic center effort, said last week that while supporters haven't given up, an active campaign for an indoor pool over the past two years has been an uphill battle.
"I would really like to see them put the thing back on," Bullington said. "We were delighted that the [original] motion passed, and it made it into the ordinance. Then it was torpedoed.
"It just really disheartened us," he added. "There's always a million excuses why not to do something."
On one previous occasion, pool backers met with success. When a group of supporters filled the council chambers at a June meeting, the City Council voted to include the indoor pool with three other projects in legislation for a proposed ballot initiative, dismissing some of the results from a city survey meant to gauge voter interest in seven possible projects.
The city survey -- mulled over by the council for weeks before being distributed -- showed only about 41 percent support for an indoor pool and about 32 percent support for a sales tax. Replacing the city's Senior Wellness Center for $4.46 million, renovating City Hall for $2.6 million, and adding T-ball and softball fields for $1.05 million were the only projects to receive more than 50 percent support. They remain on the proposed ballot.
Even if the indoor pool idea is revived, the sales tax further complicates matters. Such a tax is necessary, Watson said, to support the pool, estimated to cost $450,000 annually to operate.
"The sales tax has been voted down so if the pool gets added back in, we'd have to go through the ordinance process to get the sales tax added back in," Watson said. "It would make it a very complicated process to make it through the next couple of meetings if we try to do something like that.
"Every pool we looked at had some sort of tax that supports the operation and maintenance of the pool," the mayor said.
Bullington countered that the indoor pool would be the biggest revenue producer of any recommended project and would be "heavily used" by the city's Maumelle Marlins swim team, which uses the city's outdoor pool for practice and home meets.
The team has about 165 swimmers this summer, all from within Maumelle, said Hayes Boggan, president of the Marlins summer league team. When Maumelle hosted a swim meet July 12 at the city's outdoor pool, there were 310 swimmers competing, he said, plus parents, siblings and others.
"I know if we did build an indoor pool, there would be more chances for Maumelle to host bigger swim meets and that would bring people into town," Boggan said. "As far as helping our team, we're competing against teams that have indoor pools and year-round teams swimming. When we go into our first meet of the season, we've been in the water two to three weeks and the others have been in the water for six weeks to two months."
Alderman Preston Lewis, who led the removal of the indoor pool and sales tax from consideration, said that while he understands the supporters' advocacy: "I do not plan to change my vote."
"We really need to be mindful of the debt and cost liability we leave our citizens," Lewis said, adding that the indoor pool is a "wants versus needs" issue when traffic congestion in and out of Maumelle remains a consistent complaint.
"We get those emails that say you're not letting the people decide," Lewis said. "You have to have faith in the people you've elected to bring to you the things that are most pertinent to the community. In my eyes, we've made that decision, and it's time to go on."
Metro on 07/20/2014