New county pool plan emerges

County Manager Alan Ours hears the comments at least once a week.
Board of Commissioner Chairman Chris Dockery said he hears about it constantly.
Those are the continuous community comments about the status of the county’s future pool plan, or its current lack of one.
“Oh I hear about it all the time,” Dockery said.
But finally, there are some new answers to the questions that have been flooding county officials of late.
When the Board of Commissioners meet next Tuesday, for the meeting that was rescheduled from its original June 21 date due to the lack of board members available, representatives are expected to vote on a potential $11 million project that would provide a 26,000 square foot facility that would include a pool, indoor basketball courts and other amenities to the community.
However, those looking for the donor-sponsored, state of the art aquatic center that was originally promised will not find it in the newly released blueprint of the potential plan.
Dockery said a lot of that had to do with a lack of financial commitment from other governmental bodies.
“That was the whole goal, the intent, to come together with community partners and do something that’s above and beyond for Lumpkin County that would be a regional draw,” he said of the original aquatic center plans. “It’s kind of unfortunate, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have financial support from your community partners, it’s just not feasible and we’ve exhausted all of that energy to get community partners. Everybody had lots of input until it came down to contributing financially and then nobody was in a position to contribute financially.”
Dockery said this new plan should still get the job done.
“I think that our obligation at this point is to provide that recreational swimming for the community,” he said. “Anything beyond that, I think we would have had to have financial support from one of our community partners. We’re committed to doing that with recreational swimming and I think this new plan meets that goal of recreational swimming.”
After prices rose above the initial budgeted price and concerns about funding the pool long term came to a head, the board pressed pause on the initial $19 million pool plan.
“When you get into the maintenance and operation and the debt service of that building as it relates to the amount of revenue that it’ll generate annually to help offset those costs, it just got ugly,” Dockery said. “We were going to have to supplement that operation over a half million dollars annually just to make it work.”

DIVING IN

Now, the smaller plan is estimated around $11 million and includes less pool and more basketball.
“So we’ve scaled this back,” Dockery said of the plan. “There is a huge need for additional court space in Lumpkin County and the school system is very generous for letting the county use their gyms for Park and Rec programs, so we see this as an opportunity to meet two needs simultaneously and still live within our means. So when we put the court space in there that can serve basketball and pickleball as well as volleyball, I think we’re going to meet a need as far as those amenities. And then of course the water park and the pool, we’re meeting that need as well. So we can scale back, save a whole lot of money and I think meet more needs than if we just had done the full blown aquatic center.”
Currently the blueprint includes a large pool, a lazy river, water slides and a splash pad.
Dockery said that when compared to the original plans for the aquatic center, “all you’re losing is the indoor pool.”
“If you had to ask yourself the question ‘which would serve the biggest portion of the population, courts or an aquatic center?’ I think the courts will be used more than an aquatic center,” Dockery said. “You have a select group of people that swim and their needs are important too, but I think we can meet the majority of those needs with an outdoor heated pool. And then we can meet an additional need with those indoor courts. More people are going to benefit from the courts than the indoor aquatic center, in my opinion.”
And Dockery hinted that the two indoor courts may not be the only additions surrounding the project.

COURT’S IN SESSION

“Pickleball is really big, especially among some of the seniors in the community,” he said. “Right now they compete for that space at the community center. So this will help, these indoor courts will help. But there’s also a need for outdoor pickleball courts. So what Alan suggested….is when we seek financing to do this that we also include a couple of additional outdoor pickleball courts. We’re still looking at that. I don’t know the exact cost but I don’t think it would be that costly to put pickleball courts outside in Yahoola Creek Park.”
And while the current plan is drawn for 215 Pinetree Way, where the original aquatic center was to be located, Dockery said the new facilities could also fit at Yahoola Creek Park on what is now the rugby field.
“Our first choice would be to put it out there (Pinetree Way) because we already have investment out there,” Dockery said. “And if that doesn’t work out then we’d certainly want to put it in Yahoola Creek Park.”
For now, the plan would have to be approved officially by the board, which could happen as early as Tuesday, June 28. If approved, the next step would be to hire an architect.
While the plans do seem to be in motion, pending board approval, Dockery said he doesn’t expect the pool to be ready by next Memorial Day.
When asked by The Nugget, Ours didn’t want to put a timeline on the project at all.
“I think it’s a fair question, but it’s a question we haven’t answered yet because we have to get with the contractor, Carroll Daniel,” Ours said. “...I would be hesitant to say any timeline until we can get something firm from the contractor.”