Old Town council OKs pool funding

OLD TOWN – The Old Town community pool will remain open through the high school swim season after a vote held at Monday’s council meeting.

The council voted unanimously, with Councilor Lisa Morin absent, to fill a budget gap of about $65,000 using money from the city’s fund balance to keep the pool open for an additional six months.

Although the open and recreational swim time will be discontinued, the morning lap swim from 5:30 to 8 a.m. will continue.

“It’s a money thing to me, knowing that the teams can go swim somewhere else,” Councilor David Mahan said before the vote. “But I also believe it’s an investment in the facility.”

The pool, which was built for $240,000, including about $65,000 in federal funds, was dedicated June 25, 1968 and is valued at about $3.5 million today.

When the Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill closed more than five months ago, it put more than 450 people out of work and took with it 34 percent of the city’s tax base.

Although paperwork arrived Monday in Augusta marking that the oral purchase agreement for the mill has taken the next step, a sale has not been completed.

At budget time, the municipality was faced with making drastic budget cuts and the pool was one of the cuts considered.

Since that time, a committee headed by resident and former Councilor Ralph Leonard has conducted an energy audit on the facility and soon will begin a capital campaign to raise money to fund some energy improvements.

Leonard, who was the driving force in opening the pool originally, said the committee also intends to seek any available federal or state grant money.

Those improvements will help cut costs, and at the urging of some councilors, Leonard and other committee members have agreed to conduct a similar audit at other school and city facilities.

The City of Old Town operated the pool until 1999 when the operation was turned over to the Old Town-Orono YMCA. In addition to operating the pool, the Y’s competitive swim team practices at the high school location.

Both the high school and Y teams could have practiced at the YMCA pool, but the temperature would have been changed and scheduling would have been very difficult. In addition, the high school team would have had to rent practice time.

“I’m in support of this,” Mahan said, noting that he wants to make sure it’s the best decision for the city as a whole and that other facilities are looked at.

City Manager Peggy Daigle said she would inform the council on a monthly basis as to expenditures at the pool.

“The hope is that both programs can finish out [the season] at that facility,” she said.