The City of Dickson is looking at the possibility of building an aquatic facility that could include an indoor or indoor/outdoor swimming pool at Henslee Park.
At the Aug. 15 Finance and Management Committee meeting, Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr. updated city council members on plans currently being considered by the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board that could include construction of an indoor pool to replace the 44-year-old municipal pool at J. Dan Buckner Park.
“As you know the Buckner Park pool has been an issue for the last couple of years, especially, more from a staffing standpoint, but also from a renovation standpoint,” Weiss said. “We were fortunate to get it open last year; we were even more fortunate to be able to open it this year. We don’t feel like the Buckner pool is a repair; we feel like it’s a replace, a total replace meaning going in and having to demo everything and totally replace it.”
For the last two seasons, the city has had to reduce operating hours and close the pool season early because of a lack of staff. With most of its seasonal lifeguards being high school or college students, the city has been unable to maintain the required number of staff to keep the pool operating after school starts.
Mayor Weiss, City Administrator Rydell Wesson and Public Works Director David Travis have met with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, which the mayor said has recommended seeking requests for proposals (RFPs) for engineering firms to “look at the possibility of an indoor-type facility or an indoor/outdoor-type facility at Henslee Park.” Weiss said the administration will ask for the council’s approval to move ahead with RFPs at its Sept. 19 meeting.
“They feel like and I feel like that if we were to have a pool that could be used 24/7, that that might help our lifeguard issue from the standpoint that that becomes a full-time city position. It’s open 365 days a year. It will get more use,” Weiss said. “We think right now that to replace the Buckner Park pool at its current location, we’re looking somewhere at $1.5 million to $2 million for a pool that’s only open, at the most, three months out of the year and, the last couple of years, we’ve only gotten two months out of the year for it.”
Weiss said an indoor facility would get more use and could be linked to “some type of multi-purpose-type facility there, also, a recreation-type complex, civic center-type complex, multi-use type facility.”
The mayor said the city has a big need for a larger facility for events. The city’s primary venue, the Tennsco Community Center, stays booked for most of the year.
“We feel like we’re in that type of a situation at this point,” Weiss said.
Councilperson Horace Perkins III (3rd Ward), who serves on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, said there has been discussion on the future of the pool for the last three years and the struggles to keep it open.
“It’s just come to the point that it’s not going to be able to happen and the board is in 100 percent to do some kind of indoor facility with maybe some rooms for parties and different things,” Perkins said.
Councilperson Stacey Levine (3rd Ward), who also serves on the board, said the board has given serious consideration to the proposal.
“It’s a big step to jump from the outdoor pool to the indoor pool, but looking at the issues we’ve had with staffing and knowing that it would create just a different culture around aquatics for the city, which is something that is a really awesome thing that we could offer the citizens to be able to swim year-round for fitness or for recreation, or for parties or teaching swimming lessons, things like that, we think it’s a good thing to look into,” Levine said.
Opened in 1978, the pool at Buckner Park was renovated in 1997 with the addition of a slide and remodeling of the kiddie pool. Public Works Director Travis said in 2005 there were improvements to the accompanying structures and in 2005 a PVC liner was added, which is now showing signs of deterioration in the concrete surface underneath.
“Water seeps behind that liner and gets under that concrete through the years,” Travis said. “I don’t think it can be brought back.”
“That’s why we feel it’s a total replace, not just a repair at this point,” Weiss said.
Weiss said the council will be asked in September to authorize the city to request proposals for professional design services to construct a facility near the splash pad and playground currently under construction in Henslee Park. The 4,000-square-foot splash pad with 20 water features and 25,000-square-foot playground with 26 features is scheduled to be completed in September.
The council’s next scheduled meeting is 7:00 pm Monday, Sept. 19, in the Council Chambers at Dickson City Hall, 600 East Walnut St. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meets at 6:00 pm on the third Thursday of the month in the Council Chambers. All meetings are open to the public.
