The Carroll County Board of Supervisors has voted to move forward with the construction of a new swimming pool at a cost not to exceed $3.5 million.
Carroll Supervisors initially voted on Sept. 11, 2023 to issue a Request For Proposals for an engineer to design a new swimming pool, two new baseball fields, a basketball court and two pickleball courts at the Carroll County Recreation Park in Hillsville. Carroll County voted 5-1 on August 5 to move forward with construction of a new swimming pool at a cost not to exceed $3.5 million after hearing different options from Carroll County Recreation Director Kurt Thiele.
Later in the Aug. 5 meeting after Thiele’s presentation, Fancy Gap District Supervisor Ronnie Collins made a motion to appropriate $3.5 million to move forward on the pool project. Supervisor Greg Horton seconded the motion. Before supervisors could vote, Carroll County Administrator Mike Watson recommended the motion be amended “not to exceed $3.5 million from beginning fund balance and allow staff to review and give updates as we move forward.”
Laurel Fork District Supervisor Jody Early asked Watson where the funds were coming from for the new pool.
“Beginning fund balance,” Watson replied. “It would come from the funds you have in what you normally call savings, what we call beginning fund balance.”
“Do we have it,” Early asked?
“Yes,” Watson said.
“How will it impact other capital improvement projects,” Early asked?
“Well, if you were to allot $3.5 million, we have in our CIP $3 million for an EMS building,” Watson said. “What would happen is as we go forward that building would have to take on some type of debt to pay for that.”
“When we could use savings to perhaps not to have to use debt to pay for an EMS building,” Early asked?
“Yes,” Watson said.
Pine Creek District Supervisor Tracy Moore asked if the money for the EMS building was already in the Capital Improvement Plan. Watson replied that the county has budgeted $3 million for it “but we do not know what the cost is going to be until it is designed and billed out.”
“Well, we all know it is not going to be $3 million,” Early said.
“We anticipate it is going to be more,” Watson replied.
“It will most likely be close to double that,” Early said.
“It will be close,” Watson said. “I am hoping it is going to be between $5 and $6 million, but yes you are looking at around...”
“Double,” Early said, “which if we are using $3 million in savings to build a pool when we don’t have money for the EMS building...”
Moore countered by saying $3 million had already been appropriated for the EMS building.
“But it is not enough,” Early said. “It will have to be money to come from somewhere.”
Moore said the appropriation for the EMS building has been set aside for more than two years.
“But it is still not enough,” Early said. “It will have to come from somewhere to build a building.”
The motion passed by a 5-1 count with Early casting the lone no vote.
Watson later clarified that Carroll County would still need to have a public hearing on the $3.5 million appropriation at the county’s September meeting since the amount is for more than one percent of the county’s total budget.
SWIMMING POOL STUDY
Prior to voting for the $3.5 million appropriation for a new swimming pool, Carroll County heard from its recreation director, Kurt Thiele. Thiele told supervisors most of the data came from Wythe County and the City of Roanoke. He said he worked with National Pools as well as Thompson & Litton engineers about the possibility of developing a pool in Carroll County.
Thiele said the pool he looked at owned by the City of Roanoke is a pool that is “not necessarily in the traditional sense” but has several features for both kids and adults. This particular pool is a zero-entry pool with three lap lanes. It would also feature a lazy river as well as bathrooms, locker rooms, pump room, and mechanical room. The pool layout would be 4,400 square feet with a total footprint of between 7,000 and 9,000 square feet.
“The platform that we have over there right now where the old pool was at one point is about 14,000 square feet. The previous pool over there...had 133,000 gallons. It had a six-hour turnover rate and about 350 gallons per minute filter,” Thiele said. “The pool house over there was about 2,400 square feet.”
Thiele said Carroll’s previous pool had a total volume of 150,000 gallons, while the proposed one would be closer to 90,000 gallons. One thing that would be included with this pool is “a very, very large slide,” Thiele said. “That was a separate cost. National Pools right now are the general contractors on this project. We have talked to them a little bit about them starting construction on this project as of June. Their plans as far as when they would be able to start, the timeframe for them would be next spring with the possibility of them finishing in Spring of 2026.”
The pool Thiele looked at in Wythe County was built in the late 1990s and holds 133,000 gallons of water and is 5,248 square feet with a turnover rate of 173 gallons per minute. He said it is a little larger than the traditional size pool.
Thiele proposed two different options for supervisors to compare. The first option would be a similar sized pool plus the addition of an 1,800 square foot clubhouse that would feature concessions, bath rooms, locker rooms, etc. The total estimated project cost for that project is $4,047,000.
The second proposed option by Thiele would include demolishing the current rec department building and building back a new building that would serve as the rec office and as the new pool house. The dual purpose building would come in at 3,600 square feet, according to Thiele.
“We have had a lot of folks in the community asking about the pool. There are strong desires to have a pool,” Thiele said. “The splash pad is obviously a hit and I think they want to see it.”
Thiele also provided supervisors with annual cost estimates to operate and maintain a new pool. He estimated annual heating costs between $7,000 and $9,000, annual electrical costs at between $10,000 and $15,000, chemicals at $15,000 annually, maintenance and repairs at $25,000 to $30,000 annually, $30,000 to $45,000 for part-time employees, and between $35,000 and $50,000 for a full-time employee if the county chooses to do so.
“We are looking at a total increase on the budget between $120,000 and $170,000 (annually),” Thiele said. “Revenues, I ballparked it at $5 per person if we were able to seat roughly 125 per day for 16 weeks, seven days a week. That would have between $65,000 and $70,000. That is not including things like parties.”
Those figures also do not account for potential concession sales, Thiele said. He noted he talked to the Wythe County Recreation Director, who is very experienced in pool operations. He recommended to Thiele investing in a pool cover to keep over the pool during offseason months, noting it helps keep your chemicals in order and keeps geese and other animals out. Estimates for a pool cover range anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000.
“He also stated that they resurfaced their pool. They do this about once every 20 years and the cost on that was approximately $80,000,” Thiele said.
Carroll County Board of Supervisors Chairman Joey Dickson asked Thiele if the first estimate was from the engineer and not the contractor. Thiele confirmed that was true. Dickson then asked for an estimate from National Pools.
Thiele said that estimate was for $3.2 million. He noted Pulaski County just got a price back for a pool house that is 7,800 square feet with 3,800 square feet of occupiable space.
“The price that came back on that is $2,050,000. Now this is a brick and mortar building. But the reason I included this in the packet was to simply show you the thought or idea behind what I was thinking with having a double purpose building,” Thiele said. “This is not to say what we need, but just to show you the option. And Mr. Dickson the reason for the $3.2 million, $250,000 of that is a water slide.”
Collins noted Thiele said even with a lap pool, this pool would have less gallons than Carroll’s previous pool.
“To my understanding this one has a zero entry, so if you own a pool now you are required to have a handicapped accessible way of swimming,” Watson said. “With this, it would go from zero into the deeper area and might be a way of making up some of the square footage and would be a better way to understand it rather than gallons.”
Thiele also noted things like decking and decking furniture were not included in the estimated costs. There has been discussion, he said, of some shelters around the pool or inside of the pool.
“To include those to wrap around for parties and things like that, those are a hot ticket,” Thiele said.
The Carroll Rec Director also said the proposed pool would have a capacity of 163 people with a max depth of 10 feet. He added there was no provision for a diving board, but said the slide would have its own separate area instead of going directly into the lap pool.
“I think it’s a good feature to have it off to the side a little bit,” Thiele said.
Allen Worrell can be reached at (276) 779-4062 or on X@AWorrellTCN
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