By Susan Winlow | Daily Republic | August 14, 2009
Hite Bonner, 9, relaxes on his pool noodle while Brittany Lansdowne, 10, and Vanessa Cox, 12, play with diving rings Wednesday afternoon in the Bruning City Park swimming pool in Rio Vista. Photo by Mike Greener
FAIRFIELD - After 10 years and a couple of false starts, it looks like Rio Vista finally might have a new public pool within the next year.
The tentative start date for tearing out the old pool and changing rooms is mid-September and completion of the new facility should be in April, said John Rankine, president of the Rio Vista Foundation.
The pool, which replaces the current pool built in 1949, will be home to the Rio Vista Sharks swim team as well as a place the public can cool off in the summer. But with the city budget strapped, which entity will run and manage the new pool is up in the air.
'That is a complete unknown,' Mayor Jan Vick said. 'We have to see how the budget goes.'
The new pool project is funded entirely by donations through the Rio Vista Foundation. The group has about $1 million to spend on the project, which has been waylaid by economic bumps fueled by the downturn in the economy and pool location changes.
With the city running on a tight budget and not being able to push the project themselves, Rankine said, Rio Vista formed a license agreement with the foundation to build the pool and adjoining change room on the existing site of the current pool in Bruning Park.
Many contractors, most of them local, have been willing to work out deals or discounts with the foundation to save money on the project. Some are pure volunteers donating labor, equipment or supplies.
The foundation is still waiting for some changing room bids. Previous bids came in too high, Rankine said, and the hope is to keep the total project cost within the $1 million range to avoid asking for more donations.
'This is the last thing we're doing now is finalizing the change room,' he said. 'We're doing our best to keep it in line with what the foundation can handle.'
'We're trying to do as much as we can with the dollars we have,' Rankine added.
And most believe this time the pool will be built
'I feel more confident now than the other two times,' said Rankine, who has been involved in the project since the beginning.
Toni Mazer, president of the Rio Vista Sharks swim team, is confident, as well.
'There have been so many times that it has come so close,' she said. 'I think it's going to happen this time.'
After completion the plan is for the foundation to turn it back over to the city even though it's unknown if the city will have the money to keep it open.
'Hopefully, we'll just be able to work it out,' Vick said. 'It would be a horrible thing to have this brand new pool and not be able to open it.'
Currently, it's being run by the Sharks swim team, and it's Vick's personal preference that this arrangement continue.
'The agreement with the Sharks has been very successful this year,' she said.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.
