By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The City of Burlington Common Council appeared to agree to move forward with negotiating a contract to discuss the feasibility of maintaining a community pool in Burlington Tuesday night.
After about 45 minutes of discussion, the council moved onto the next item on the agenda after most council members agreed that the study needed to be done in order to find out whether or not the city wanted – or needed – a pool.
There was not a vote taken at the Committee of the Whole meeting. The recommendation of city staff will be voted on at the April 6 Common Council meeting.
City Administrator Carina Walters and city staff reviewed four bids, and after three were reviewed further by city staff, aldermen and community pool board members, the recommendation is to move forward with Ayers Associates.
There are six different phases to the planning process, and the Common Council will have an option of terminating the project at any of the six phases.
The first four phases will include site assessment, preliminary design, a management plan and potential referendum assistance.
There were still questions, though, about the need for a study.
“I’m really concerned this is being driven so much by the city,” said Alderman Jon Schultz, who added that he wanted the community to be spearheading the effort.
Alderman Tom Preusker said that too much time had been spent on the proposal process, and it’s not addressing the real questions about the pool.
“The problem is not that we have a failed pool right now,” Preusker said, adding that the failure was in clear ownership and operation of the pool.
“Whose problem is it?” he asked. City Attorney John Bjelajac said that the study was designed to answer exactly those questions.
Added Mayor Bob Miller, “This gets us a lot of the answers we’re looking for.”
In other items Tuesday night, the mayor tabled discussion and a vote on a combined asphalt bidding process with the Town of Burlington until a contract can be ironed out.
The council also approved moving forward with a jointing planning and engineering study to replace the Jefferson Street bridge, which is reaching the end of its lifespan.
That process will involve a joint effort with the Department of Transportation and is tentatively scheduled for 2019 if the process comes together.
The council also authorized special assessments to complete city sidewalk repairs, which means residents where the repairs happen will be billed 50 percent of the cost. The total work is less than $30,000, spread over numerous streets.
-
-
-
-
-