The city of Toledo is seeking public help choosing one of three options for changes and upgrades to the Jamie Farr Park pool, which authorities say can’t reopen without major repairs once this season is over.
The 50-by-80-foot North Toledo pool is in need of $2 million in repairs, Joe Fausnaugh, director of parks and youth services, said Thursday when the city used Jamie Farr Shelter House to unveil the plans.
Rather than suggest a $2 million “status-quo” option to repair the pool “as is,” he said, the city is offering the public to choose one of three alternative projects that would each replace the existing pool with one of the following:
- A $1 million splash pad, compete with a deck and a variety of play and shade structures.
- A $3.3 million beach-style walk-in pool, complete with water slides.
- A $3.4 million combination of a pool and a splash pad.
“This pool is extremely popular,” said Alfonso Narvaez, a neighborhood community leader who attended the event. “I like all three [options], but at the end of the day you see investments into this neighborhood. And that’s really what matters the most, because when you talk to residents they will tell you that they feel forgotten, that the city has left them behind.”
Toledo City Councilman Vanice Williams, the chairman of the council’s Parks, Education, Recreation, and Health Committee who was also present, agreed that keeping an aquatic facility at the park is important.
“The most important thing is to see what the community wants,” Councilman Williams said. “That’s the most important piece the neighborhood they live in has they should be able to have.”
Mr. Fausnaugh said the city has $1 million available from American Recovery Plan Act funds for aquatic improvements at the park. So, should the public decide to have a functioning aquatic facility at the venue next summer — the city would have to go with the first option — replacing the existing pool with a splash pad, he said.
Alternatively, should the public lean to either of the other two options, the city would need at least two to three years to raise additional funds — through grants, donations, city capital improvement funds, or district improvement funding — which would leave the public without an aquatic facility at that venue for the next few years, he emphasized.
“OK, options two and three require additional funding that we don’t have. If the public prefers those options and they are willing to wait two or three years for that, then I am willing to do that. ... But I don’t want to make that decision for the community,” Mr. Fausnaugh said. He plans to reach out to the public through the social media, he said.
The options were presented by representatives of Brandstetter Carroll, Inc., a Cleveland architectural and engineering firm that used visual displays to explain the options. Each fits within the footprint of the existing pool.
Should everything go to plan, construction may begin as early as November, Mr. Fausnaugh said.
The facility is one of Toledo’s six swimming pools. There is also a splash pad at Savage Park and a water play area at Promenade Park.
Significant investments have been made in nearly all of the city pools, which are fairly aged, leaving the Jamie Farr Park facility next in line for improvements.
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