HUMBOLDT — More answers are needed before Humboldt City Council members will agree to hire a private company to manage Humboldt’s swimming pool.
Council members, gathered at a special meeting Monday, held an at-times contentious debate about the benefits of paying USA Pools, a Georgia-based company, $45,730 to manage the Humboldt Municipal Pool in 2013.
The city has a proposal to sign a one-year contract, or a three-year contract with a slight discount.
City Administrator Larry Tucker pointed out the city budgeted more than $54,000 this year for pool expenditures, including salaries, benefits, training and chemical supplies.
As part of the proposal, USA Pools would hire a pool manager and lifeguards to oversee daily operations, from 1 to 8 p.m. daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The city would receive the revenues from daily admission costs, while the company would receive the bulk of the revenues for special events, such as private parties.
Humboldt also would be responsible for repairs and maintenance to the pool.
The company also has pledged to work closely with the Humboldt Recreation Commission in scheduling youth swim lessons and adult swim classes.
Before the city signs the contract, City Attorney Fred Works wrote out a series of questions, including one provision that would prohibit the hiring of any employees such as lifeguards for one calendar year if the contract is canceled. Such a provision could make it difficult to rehire lifeguards if the city for whatever reason, ends its contract with USA Pools.
Works recommended the city stick with a one-year contract before agreeing to any multi-year option.
Mayor Nobby Davis agreed, saying the city needed answers to those and other questions posed Monday by a handful of audience members.
Darcie Croisant and Jason Bauer, representing the Humboldt Recreation Commission, asked whether HRC or USA Pools would offer swim lessons, while Toni Schomaker, a resident and candidate for the USD 258 Board of Education, grilled councilmen on how the company would manage the pool.
Would the managers be from out of town, she asked.
A company employee likely from the Kansas City area will oversee the hiring of pool managers, Tucker responded, and every effort would be made to hire local employees.
Tucker also said company officials have pledged to work with the recreation commission on a number of issues, including swim lessons and swim meets.
Schomaker also noted Chanute hired a private company to manage its pool for a few years, but eventually ended the contract because of public criticism of the company’s managing style.
The company ran the Chanute facility like “pool Nazis,” Schomaker contended.
Would the company continue to offer free adult water aerobics sessions, as has been done in years past, Bauer asked.
Works also noted the proposed contract contains little if any language regarding concessions sales. Would the company be responsible for concessions?
The city also must be mindful that a license would be necessary for certain food products to be sold, and a new state law would require modifications to the pool’s bathhouse if a license is necessary, Davis said.
Tucker asked council members to give tentative approval to the contract, provided the company had suitable answers for the questions.
Council members, however, agreed to wait, noting the company wanted to know by “the first of February” — and not Feb. 1 — the city’s decision.
A decision is expected at the council’s Feb. 11 meeting.
COUNCIL MEMBERS approved purchase of a new backhoe to replace the existing backhoe that may be on its last legs.
The city will purchase a JCB backhoe from Sellers Equipment of Wichita for $64,325, minus trade-in.
The city’s current backhoe was purchased in 2005, and is almost certainly on its last legs because its motor is in danger of failing.
“We could rebuild the motor, but we’re still looking at a used piece of equipment,” Davis said.
The city will pay half of the costs out of its general fund, and the other half out of a $73,000 payment Humboldt received from class action settlement from a St. Louis-based herbicide producer.
Syngente Crop Protection paid more than 1,000 communities across North America roughly $105 million because its products wound up depositing high levels of atrazine in groundwater supplies.
The added atrazine was removed from the water by the cities’ water treatment facilities, including Humboldt’s.
“The settlement helps pay for the chemicals we used to treat that water,” Tucker said.
Tucker noted the backhoe would be used extensively for water line repairs.
