Weimar will seek proposals on pool

WEIMAR—The Weimar City Council voted unanimously last Thursday to seek proposals for a design-build contract in hopes of finding a contractor to build a new municipal swimming pool.

The move came weeks after Weimar City Manager Mike Barrow announced at a local civic club meeting that the pool would be closed for the summer. The city had not previously made this announcement, and Barrow said he made it after consulting with a couple of council members.

Under the scope of a design-build contract, the city will set a total amount to be spent on the project. The contractor must then bid the engineering and construction aspects of the contract within that dollar amount, which the city has set at $800,000.

Initial stages in the contracting process may feature preliminary design concepts, but the city will not see detailed design concepts until after a vendor has executed a contract.

“If they accept the number, they are bound to it,” said Karl Dawson, Weimar City Attorney.

Barrow told the council that the request for proposals would be put together quickly, but that it may require a special council meeting in late April for the council to approve the final RFP.

Councilwoman Becky Roberts asked if these plans meant the pool would still be closed this summer.

“If we can get them in there and start doing summer construction, yes, I don’t think council wants to get a new pool and then spend $200,000 or more on that in the next two months to bring it up to code,” Barrow said.

“It has to be brought up to code. We have an evaluation that says it has no way we can bring the pool up to code and open it—not with what we know,” Barrow said.

In an interview with the Citizen following last Thursday’s Council Meeting, Barrow immediately retracted the $200,000 amount he claimed for repairs during the council meeting.

“In the context of that conversation, that was arbitrary,” he said. He claimed he didn’t have a figure for what repairs to the existing pool would cost.

He said the report, from Water Technology Inc., previously presented to the city council, “says it has health and safety issues,” he said. During the interview with The Citizen, he said the report was delivered to the city council in 2018. In an e-mail follow-up in which it was pointed out that the report appeared in no council minutes or agendas for 2018, Barrow said the council received the report in 2017.

The report, a copy of which has been obtained by the newspaper, projected a high-end number of $394,000 for repairs to the existing pool and bathroom facilities.

Barrow also defended city staff’s decision making on the pool, which has been a source of controversy in Weimar for the last several weeks.

“Just as a police chief would look at it and close down a street, as staff we have authority to close down the pool,” Barrow said.

“Staff is always required to go out and figure things out, and come back with some type of solution to council,” he said.

“As far as criticism, of folks that I’ve seen criticism from, those are people that haven’t been to a council meeting, and they put stuff on social media and it is very apparent that they are not up on where discussions are in open council meetings,” Barrow said.

The city will be on the hook for routhly $400,000 of the pool costs. The remainder will come from a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department grant.