BELPRE - Belpre City Council unanimously approved Monday to spend city funds to repair the slide at the city swimming pool during a meeting of the finance and parks and recreation committees prior to the regular council meeting.
Repairs on the slide, which was installed with the pool about five years ago, are estimated to cost $15,400, said safety-service director Dave Ferguson.
"The slide has some bad places that have been temporarily patched without kids scraping their bodies on raw fiberglass, but we really should have it repaired fully," he said.
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Photo by Jolene Craig
Leslie Pittenger, Belpre city auditor and coordinator of Belpre in Bloom, holds up a bag of flower bulbs the volunteer organization is selling to fund the second year of the beautification project.
An I-beam on the slide also needs replaced to secure it to the pool, he said.
"I know $15,000 is a lot of money; we should have it resurfaced from top to bottom to keep it going," Ferguson said. "If we are going to have a slide at the pool, we need to maintain it."
All seven council members agreed with Ferguson.
"Since we stepped out and built the swimming pool, we need to maintain it," said Councilman Larry Martin. "It is a service we provide for the community and it was averaging 150 to 200 people, so it is being used."
Ferguson said the pool, which opened in 2007 after a fundraising campaign, is starting to age and needs to be maintained.
Councilwoman Susan Abdella requested city auditor Leslie Pittenger to add the cost to the 2013 budget appropriations.
Work to make the repairs is not expected to begin until spring.
Ferguson pointed out that while the pool did not make money this past season, it could have.
"It was closed for a total of 12 days, which represented a good portion of money we could have made," he said.
Several of those days were during the power outage at the end of June and early July when temperatures were high and people could have cooled off.
"They were five of the hottest days," Ferguson said.
In other business:
"As people know, I'm always plugging Belpre in Bloom," she said. "We have a lot of big plans for the coming year."
The bulbs are $10 for a bag of four with fertilizer and instructions. All proceeds will go toward the project.
For more information or to order a plant, contact Pittenger at the city building.
