Tuesday, February 6th, 2018
Fort plans to repair pool walls
By Sydney Albert
FORT RECOVERY - Repairs are needed at Ambassador Pool before summer, and village officials are researching the cost of such a project.
"The swimming pool's going to take some structural work this spring. The concrete walls are looking bad," village administrator Randy Diller said to council members on Monday.
Officials are talking with Wellman Brothers of Coldwater about cutting out part of the pool's walls to remove bad concrete before filling in the space. Coldwater officials completed a similar project several years ago. Diller said he's spoken with Coldwater Administrator/Engineer Eric Thomas, who said it had been an expensive but worthwhile fix. Coldwater Memorial Pool has not required similar maintenance since the repairs had been made.
Wellman Brothers gave a "worst-case scenario" quote of $26,000, accounting for the maximum amount of concrete that might need to be replaced, but Diller said the project would more likely cost between $20,000 and $25,000.
"We have looked at the possibility of putting a liner in that pool to extend the life of it, and that's still a possibility, but even if we do that liner, we have to do this work first," Diller said.
The village likely will have the walls repaired this year and look further into liners next year, he continued.
In other business, council members discussed whether they should keep an old police cruiser as an unmarked vehicle or if trading it in would be a financially better option. Police chief Jared Laux spoke with members about getting a new cruiser this year and transitioning an older model into an unmarked vehicle.
Diller said Laux's cruiser was ready to be replaced "as far as a cruiser goes," but it wasn't costing the village anything to maintain it.
A 2018 Ram would replace the 2008 model Laux is using, and the older vehicle could be available for use by other departments, Laux said. He told council members the vehicle is in decent condition with nearly 78,000 miles. It's not something that the police would use weekly, but Laux said it might be handy to have for stakeouts.
Mayor David Kaup said the village usually hasn't received much credit when trading in old cruisers.
