Millinocket delays action on public pool

MILLINOCKET – The Town Council thought it had a workable design and plan to build a new outdoor community pool when it voted on July 27 to approve that plan and to authorize the application for a $1.2 million, 15-year bond to cover the tentative cost of pool construction.

Now councilors want to know why only one contractor bid on it and why the bid was significantly more than the project’s tentative budget, town officials said Thursday.

“We will use our engineering consulting firm to see what our next steps could be,” Town Council Chairman David Nelson said.

Nelson and Town Manager Eugene Conlogue declined to say who the sole bidder is or how much that bidder offered to build the new pool. The bond issue figure, Conlogue has said, is not necessarily synonymous with the construction costs.

Engineers from Civil Engineering Services Inc. of Brewer will meet with the council at its meeting on Thursday to discuss the bid.

A meeting set for Sept. 7 to award a pool bid was canceled.

The outdoor pool’s conceptual design features four racing lanes, a toddler wading area with safety rails, a mushroom fountain that sprays water, two diving boards, sloping sides and depths and a large slide.

It includes a gently curved roof with sunroof, a bathhouse with changing rooms and a large grass strip suitable for sunbathing or light outdoor recreation. The pool will be located amid the town recreation complex near Stearns High School.

Nelson and Conlogue did not know if the bid delay would slow the project’s construction schedule.

If all goes well, excavation and concrete pouring would begin in the fall and finish in the spring, with the pool opening by July 1, 2007, officials have said.