August 23, 2025
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Decision to be made on Mount Ayr aquatic center by June 4

By SHAWNA CREVELING

The 10-foot area of the Mount Ayr pool is dug up so workers can reach the drain for the pool. When their work is completed, the hole will be filled with concrete. The committee for the new aquatic center is fundraising for a new bath house, storm shelter and new pool. (CNA photo)

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MOUNT AYR — Fundraising for a new aquatic center in Mount Ayr started five to six years ago. Currently, nine people are on the aquatic center committee, and they are approximately $175,000 away from making phase one of the project a reality.

However, the committee is on a tight schedule as a $535,000 grant from Federal Emergency Management Agency must be used by August 2012.

“When we went to bids in November, the bids came in way over what we anticipated,” said committee member Lywanda Case. “When the bids came in the second time, on March 15, they were still over budget. The March bids were good for 60 days.”

Oakview dck LLC, of Red Oak, had the lowest bid in March, and gave the committee a 30-day extension on May 15 to decide if they wanted to accept the bid or not.

“The 30-day extension gives us until June 15,” said Case. “But, the Mount Ayr City Council has to act on this, and we will be giving them a recommendation on whether or not to proceed with this at the next meeting, which is on June 4. So, we have to make our decision by June 4, then recommend it to the council, so they can decide whether to decline or accept the bids.”

Case added the city of Mount Ayr will not be helping with funding for the aquatic center, because they don’t have the additional funds to help.

The committee has done several fundraising events for the project, and applied for other grants. They are also attempting to get more money from FEMA. However, the committee will not know if they are receiving additional money from FEMA until they have signed a contract.

“It sounds pretty positive that we will get more money from FEMA, but we don’t know,” said Case. “We can sign a contract, but it has to be a number that we are comfortable with. There is no guarantee we will get more money from FEMA, or get the grants we applied for. So, if we sign a contract, and are $175,000 short, we are responsible for that difference.”

One of the main goals the committee, which include Teresa Jackson, Tammy Rychnavsky, Chandra Poore, Lywanda Case, Joan Jackson, Angie Glendenning, Leslie Dredge-Murphy, Meredith Dredge and Clint Spurrier. has for the project is to complete it “without taxes or bonds.”

Phase one

There are two phases to the aquatic center project. Phase one is the storm shelter and bath house. Phase two is the actual pool.

“Our current pool is over 50 years old,” said Poore. “Right now, we have to manually feed the chemical controllers, our filters aren’t working properly, the 10-foot has been leaking so long it is deteriorating, the pool is cracked, it isn’t handicap accessible and the concrete is soft. It’s getting to the point where we could be shut down.”

Poore added, in 2011, the pool was closed for about the same amount of time it was open because the chemicals were not able to be regulated.

“It is so outdated it’s like the parts for it are obsolete,” said Rychnavsky.

The storm shelter and bath house are designed to withstand 250 mph winds, and will be built out of concrete. The building will have men and women’s locker rooms, a meeting room and will also be the guardhouse. The storm shelter will have the capacity to hold 200 to 250 people.

“The reason we started with the bath house and storm shelter is because we have had a lot of close calls in the past with bad storms,” said Poore.

The bath house and storm shelter will go on the east side of the pool, where the shelter house and picnic tables are currently located. There will be a 90-foot walkway from the bath house and storm shelter to the old pool, and it will be fenced in.

“Ninety-foot sounds like a lot of distance, but the new pool has a zero-radius design where people can just walk into the pool,” said Case. “So, when you have the zero-radius design, the pool starts quite a way before it reaches the 3-foot depth mark. So, for the time being, it will look like a lot of distance, but when the new pool is built, it won’t be that much.”

Moving on

After phase one is complete, the committee will move on to making phase two a reality.

“After we get done with phase one, we are hoping that people will see it completed and they’ll be more willing to donate,” said Poore. “Hopefully, we will have other grant opportunities and things like that for phase two, also.”

The committee said it wasn’t just the people who swim at the pool that would be impacted if the pool would shut down.

“If our pool isn’t open, then the people who usually go to the pool here go to another town to use their pool,” said Case. “When they go there, they are patronizing their grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and things like that.”

Case added it isn’t just the pool that will be impacted, it will also impact the community.

“We are just hoping it doesn’t come to us getting shut down in order to get funding,” said Poore. “We want to stress that this is a pay it forward type of thing.”

The committee is going to continue fundraising as normal. During Ayr Days, the committee will serve sandwiches and hold a Texas Hold ‘em tournament.

“We just want to let people know, if they have been thinking about making a donation, now is the time to do it,” said Case. “We also want them to know, if this whole thing falls through, all of the money that has been donated will go toward the old pool.”