Park board OKs $20,000 survey on Memorial Pool

Firm concluded pool should be replaced, costing $4.4 million

The La Crosse park board has authorized spending $20,000 to conduct an opinion poll about the recently closed Memorial Pool.

In mid-June, a firm’s assessment of the pool was it would be cheaper to replace it, rather than repair it.

To repair the 78-year old pool the firm estimated it would cost $3.9 million. To replace it, cost would be around $4.4 million. 

It was at that point the park board decided to put on hold having the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse conduct a random-sample survey, and possibly put together a special committee to review the 56-page report (photo right shows some of damage at pool from report).

No such committee has been appointed and some are criticizing the process of doing the survey before reviewing the report. Those critics are also not happy with the cost of the survey – one which may or may not determine anything.

UW-L professor John Kovari said 3,000 people would be given the random-sample survey and he expects 600 to answer it. Of those 600, there would be a 4 percent margin of error in responses.

He also brought up some of the questions that may be on the survey:

• What kind of pool you use – whether it’s a beach or a pool
• How frequently you use that pool? 
• What do you use that pool for, recreational, therapeutic?

A former park board member thinks the board is putting the “cart before the horse” by authorizing the survey, before the mayor even chooses a study committee.

“This whole process that I’ve seen has really unnerved me,” Chris Kahlow said. “I think there’s a lack of transparency here. I’m not happy the way it’s been going. I’m quite frustrated.”

Kahlow says the discussion reminds her of a recent attempt to build a new pool at the Forest Hills golf course. She says that proposal seemed to be pushed in secret, without much public discussion.