El Paso City Council approves over budget West Side pool

It’s going to cost a lot more than the City anticipated but the El Paso City Council on Tuesday decided to move forward with a new Westside pool.

This is the first project from the 2012 Quality of Life bond approved by voters that has gone way over budget. The reason why it’s over budget depends on who you ask. The Parks and Recreation Director has said it’s because the City didn’t properly analyze the cost of the competition-style pool, underestimating the price tag. However, some city representatives say it was originally supposed to be a more basic design but the public started asking for more amenities increasing the price.

“I don’t think they were underestimated per se – I think that we had originally projected two different pools and once the process got rolling the community said wait a minute we don’t want two very different pools, we want the same pool on each side of town, and so the scope of the westside pool increased dramatically but the need for it was very obvious,” said City Rep. Michiel Noe, referring to the competition style pool in East El Paso that’s budgeted at $16 million from the Quality of Life bond.

The 50-meter competition pool will be located next to the Leo Cancellere Recreation Center off Wallenberg Drive in west El Paso.

The city had originally budgeted $8 million from the Quality of Life bond for the project. It’s still using that, plus $3.5 million, which is coming from two proposed westside parks – also quality of life bond projects – that are now on hold. And the city manager is going to try to find $1.8 either in savings from other projects or from Certificates of obligation, which is debt. The total price tag: $13.3 million.

About a dozen people showed up to the meeting urging council to approve the increased budget for the pool saying that was the cost of a basic competition pool. “I think they did a great job of coming together and finding a solution to the problem,” said Rachel Garcia, a supporter of the pools.

“They were here telling us this is the pool we want, this is the money we’re going to invest. We know our taxes are going to go up but this is what we want,” said City Rep. Cortney Niland.

A new concern surfaced Tuesday: City Manager Tommy Gonzalez making it clear that the $16million budget for the Eastside pool will very likely also fall short.
Members of the swimming community said they knew it would cost to build these pools. “USA swimming actually did let the city know that in order to build a (Westside) pool of this magnitude, it would be $12 million. How it was underbudgeted and why… I don’t know,” said Garcia.

City officials said the two westside parks that are on hold are quality of life bond projects that had virtually no constituency support. “No one ever asked for these but what they did ask for is this pool and so it is within our legal right to make those minor tweaks,” said Niland.

“If we find savings, great. We can put those back on but right now those are questionable products – they may never get done,” said Noe.

According to the City and the Architecture firm InSitu, which is designing the Westside pool, $8 million can only build a 30 meter pool with room for about 50 spectators.

$13 million is enough to build a complex with a 50 meter pool that can hold nearly 800 spectators and 600 swimmers, according to the design team.

The City Council also decided to speed up the design and construction of the Eastside pool and re-evaluate its entire aquatics program to modernize and maximize usage and efficiency, which may include closing older facilities in favor of newer ones that serve bigger populations, said City Manager Tommy Gonzalez.