City clarifies indoor pool funding plans
By Chris Fortune
The city of St. Joseph released a statement to clear up any confusion about its plan to potentially contribute funds to a pool project.
On Wednesday, campaign-like messages paid for by an entity called Taxpayer Protection Fund went out to some St. Joseph residents, telling them the city council wants to spend tax dollars on an indoor pool project that could cost up to $50 million.
Later in the day, the city responded by making its position clear in a statement posted on its social media pages.
“The message appears to be related to the approval of a resolution that stated the city’s intent to utilize up to $7 million of Parks Tax funding to contribute to a potential partnership with the YMCA,” the city said in its statement.
News-Press NOW reported in April that the cost for the indoor pool could be around $16 million. The city intends to contribute up to $7 million for the YMCA project if the YMCA secures the rest of the funding by the end of 2024, and the city council unanimously passed $270,000 in annual operations costs for the facility.
One lifelong St. Joseph resident said she feels like campaign texts are often sent to community members.
“You’ve got to research your stuff, like, don’t believe everything that’s coming through just because it’s a text message,” Leah Meek said. “You need to look that up and find out what’s going on before you take that as a serious, true statement.”
The $7 million the city intends to contribute was previously allocated for the construction of a lap pool at the St. Joseph Aquatic Park. Instead, the city council decided to look at options for an indoor pool that could be used year-round.
“Continued interest and conversations have shown both support and opposition to the construction of an indoor facility,” the city said in its statement.
Meek said she would support the city contributing funds for an indoor pool because her daughter learned how to swim with lessons taught at the Downtown YMCA, but it closed before her son could receive the same lessons.
“My daughter is the one that ended up teaching him how to swim in a random pool one day, so he just picked it up,” she said. “But it would have been nice to have those lessons from a city pool.”
