An emergency Magnolia City Council meeting was held at 9 a.m. Thursday morning to analyze and discuss the safety, maintenance, and future of East Side Pool. The meeting was called after Arkansas State Department of Health Inspector Marie Bane informed city officials of a few possible hazards that currently exist on both the swimming pool floor and the surrounding deck.
Bane’s concern came after she found a patches of paint chipping near the pool’s shallow end. According to City Parks Department Director David Burdine, Bane thought children might cut or scrape their feet on these areas while they swim, play, or wade in the pool.
Aside from public, recreational swimming, East Side Pool is also heavily used every summer by the Magnolia Dolphins Swim Team for its practices and area meets. Mayor Parnell Vann explained that the pool cannot be opened until the facility passes a health inspection.
“The health department has to inspect the pool and the water to make sure it’s sanitary enough for the kids to be in. If we don’t pass her inspection, we can’t open,” said Vann. “She has to give us the green light.”
To fully resurface the pool would cost the city roughly $50,000. The city council projected that these repairs would last only a few years before needing maintenance again. Instead of fully resurfacing the pool, the council members opted to spot-patch the areas in question by sandblasting off the old, chipping paint and repainting that area of the surface. By using this method, the cost to the city will be significantly less than a full resurfacing.
It was also decided that the large cracks in the pool deck would be repaired and re-plastered.
Vann and the Magnolia City Council members who were present discussed long-term options for the nearly 60-year-old swimming facility. They concluded that if the proposed Magnolia sports complex and aquatics center passes a vote for approval by Magnolia citizens, East Side Pool would no longer be needed. If the new proposed facility does not pass, then a new public swimming pool would have to be constructed.
“If we have a vote in October, and we get a new aquatics center, then that will fix the problem,” said Vann. “Even if the vote does not pass, we are going to have to bulldoze this facility and start construction of a new pool immediately. We have no choice. If we drop $50,000 this year, we’re going to deal with it again in two years. I can’t, as mayor, in good faith put that kind of money into this worn out slab.”
The council also decided to permanently close the small kids’ pool, which also needs repairs, on the East Side Pool property. They discussed either filling it with dirt and creating a garden or filling it with concrete to create a tent area for swim meets.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, May 22, in the Magnolia City Council chambers.