Cities are finding creative ways to fund the construction and upkeep of municipal pools— critical community infrastructure that expands the definition of an essential service.
By Jennifer Krazit
The City of Kennewick knows that the 8,000–10,000 people who visit its public pool each summer are swimming on borrowed time.
Kenneth Serier Memorial Pool, an outdoor recreational facility that includes a 25-yard, six-lane pool for lap swimming, a 13-foot-deep dive pool, and a small wading pool for children, was originally opened in 1955 and last renovated in 1987. About two years ago, the city switched from using potentially hazardous chlorine gas to chlorine tablets to disinfect its water—one of the last communities in the state to do so—but it still has to institute 30-minute breaks between large swim sessions to test and adjust the chemicals manually, unlike more modern pools that can adjust chlorine levels in near real-time. And much of the core piping and other infrastructure is decades old, leaving the pool vulnerable to a catastrophic failure that could take the facility out of commission.
“We’re approaching the useful lifespan of the pool, and you judge that based on the amount of maintenance and fixes that need to go into it compared to what you would need to engage in a new pool design,” says Nick Farline, Parks, Recreation & Facilities Director for the City of Kennewick.
Adding a bit of urgency to the situation is HB 1684. The proposed legislation (which stalled this session) would bring the state’s municipal pool codes in line with national standards, but it would also mean that if Kennewick were to make any modifications to the pool, it would lose its grand-fathered-in status and would have to make significant, costly upgrades to bring the facility up to code.
And then there’s the fact that tastes have changed. When Kennewick’s pool was built 70 years ago, having a simple “rectangular body of water” was perfectly fine, says Farline. But today users expect more from a community pool than just swim lessons and lap swimming: they also want a safe and fun aquatic playground with features like sloped or zero-entry pools, lazy rivers, water slides, and accessibility for all ages and abilities.
All of that means Kennewick will need to rebuild. And finding funding will be a challenge. So, the Kennewick Parks and Recreation Department conducted a community survey to gauge public interest: 56% of respondents said they were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the current pool facilities. Respondents also ranked the quality of the city’s swimming pools among the top three areas they feel the parks department should emphasize over the next five years. The department followed this up with a feasibility study, which sketched out some possibilities for location, amenities, and estimated costs (one design, featuring a new large pool for laps and lessons plus a recreational leisure pool, would run about $12 million). Now the city needs to find the funding.
Key to that process, says Farline, is giving elected officials the information they need to get a project like this off the ground. That means gathering data about community sentiment; estimating ongoing maintenance costs and potential repair costs for when the pool inevitably does fail; conducting a feasibility study to provide a clear path forward; and having a realistic timeline in mind.
“Most municipalities don’t just have $12 million in capital that they can commit without having that thoughtful road map,” says Farline.
Diving for dollars
Meanwhile, White Salmon and its surrounding communities are taking a highly collaborative approach to replacing a public pool that was decommissioned in 2018. That year, voters approved an initiative to create the White Salmon Valley Pool Metropolitan Park District, which is now working to secure funding for a new pool. The district was awarded $2,770,828 in grants and other funding from the state Recreation & Conservation Office. Additional funding sources include contributions from the City of White Salmon ($140,000), the neighboring City of Bingen ($35,000), Klickitat County ($50,000), private donations and in-kind pledges totaling more than $1,402,000, and revenue from a local tax levy. The pool, which will be built on land leased from the school district for $1 per year, will have eight 25-yard lanes, a diving board, and a building to house changing rooms, offices, and mechanical equipment.
Kennewick’s neighbor Pasco recently cleared the funding hurdle and is constructing a dome to cover its municipal pool, which will turn its formerly outdoor pool into a year-round facility. Funding for that $1.2 million project is coming from a limited tax general obligation bond ($978,000), the city’s Park Development Fund ($315,000), the Pasco School District ($100,000), and a real estate excise tax ($130,000), plus anticipated income from expanded swim programs.
And last summer, Tenino cut the ribbon on a renovated Tenino Quarry Pool. Originally an abandoned rock quarry that filled with water, the area was a popular swimming hole, which the city eventually purchased and opened as a municipal pool in 1950. Beginning in 2018, and thanks in large part to a $350,000 Thurston County Community Development Block Grant, the city conducted much-needed upgrades to bring the facility up to code and improve accessibility, while adding a splash pad, kiddie pools, a sun deck, and shaded cabanas.
Not just a “nice to have”
Because municipal pools are not big moneymakers, it can be hard to argue for funding to support a pool when cities are weighing that cost against fundamental services such as wastewater treatment, public safety, road maintenance, and public transportation.
But having a municipal pool is “not just something that’s a nice-to-have,” says Kennewick’s Nick Farline, who notes that municipal pools are often the only affordable opportunities for swimming and learning water safety, as the expense of private athletic clubs prices out large swaths of the community. “I think it’s a core tenet of what we do in municipal government. You’ve got to keep people safe, make sure the toilets flush and the lights turn on. But what we’re finding is that when people look for a place to move to, right on the heels of good school districts and whether a place is safe, they want to know about the quality-of-life opportunities. People are looking for trails, parks, and recreational opportunities.”
And in the summertime, that means a place to swim.
“People are looking for trails, parks, and recreational opportunities.”
For more information: go2kennewick.com; whitesalmonwa.gov