City proceeds with plans to install lights at pool

The Morris City Council approved improved lighting to be put in at the Morris pool.

The council approved the addition to the pool project at its regular meeting Monday. It was approved 6 to1 with Alderman Don Hansen voting against it. Alderman Drew Muffler was absent.

The change order for the pool project was for $101,331 to put in new lighting that would provide for security and night swimming. The current lights had to be redone anyway, and to redo the existing security lights, it would be about $47,000, said Alderman Ken Sereno, chairman of the Parks and Annexation Committee.

Those security lights are not usable for night swimming, Mayor Richard Kopczick said. At the committee meeting last month pool managers Jim Hitchcock and George Dare shared with them new activities the pool could offer if it had night swimming, such as private parties or scuba lessons, Alderman Julian Houston added.

The $101,331 provides the installation of new lights that will serve for security and night swimming. For security, they would be on an automatic system, but for night swimming they would have to be put on manually.

Alderman Randy Larson asked why the additional expense did not go out for bid.

"The job is $1.7 million and this is just a standard change order," City Engineer Warren Olson said.

Larson asked Olson if he thought the price for the new lights was reasonable. Olson said it came is less than thought, as he estimated $110,000.

"If we don't do it now and they decide 10 years from now they need lights, it's going to be three times the price, because they'll have to tear out the concrete to put in the poles," Houston said.

Several updates are planned for the pool, which was originally built in the 1920s. Renovations include a new liner, returning diving boards to the pool, removing the baby pool and expanding the pool to the south for a zero-depth entry, installing a new filtration system and adding a splash park for young children, as well as water slides.

The project had been stalled because the state was not issuing Morris its permit due to a statewide issue with pool drains. Many pool drains nationally are considered dangerous due to a drainage system that was used. When open, they can suck a swimmer in and cause them to drown.

This was not a problem previously at the Morris pool, and the new pool plans call for an approved drainage system to be installed. The city expects to have its permit in January and, barring an unexpectedly terrible winter, Kopczick said, the project should still be completed by its scheduled June 1 date.