The Mexico City Council on Monday approved the final construction plan for Fairground Pool. Major changes include a zero-grade entry and modifying the pool from an eight-lane, 50-meter lap pool, to a …
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Mexico city leaders and staff broke ground on Fairground Pool upgrades July 7, but the city council had one more step to accomplish as construction starts.
Up until Monday night, construction plans were in draft format. With a vote by the council, those plans were finalized. Some of the biggest changes at the pool will be a zero-grade entry and changing from an eight-lane, 50-meter lap pool to a six-lane, 25 meter lap pool for swim meets.
The original design-build contract with Westport Pools of Maryland Heights signed December 2019 had a not-to-exceed amount of $3.5 million. Amendments to the construction plan, including the six-lane lap pool and Life Floor fall protection surfacing to the zero depth entry area increased the final not-to-exceed total to $3.66 million.
“Design-build processes are different than your normal bid processes,” Parks and Recreation Director Chad Shomeaker said. “They get a design in place and then you do public input within the [budgeted] dollar figure.”
Another safety feature is a special water disinfection unit costing $124,000 that uses high-intensity UV light to kill microbes, including COVID-19, City Manager Bruce Slagle said. This is in addition to other water filters. Since it was not a budgeted item, the city will seek CARES Act funding distributed by the county to help pay for this additional equipment.
If the funding application request is denied by the county, the water sanitation equipment costs will be folded into the the three-way split of funding sources that will pay construction costs. A denial is unlikely, Slagle said.
“This [equipment] is a perfect use of that CARES money,” he said. “I have discussed this with [the county]. I discussed this with a couple legislators’ aids and they said this is a perfect use.”
A draft plan from February had the six-lane pool, but that was reduced to four in a final draft. After public concerns, the final construction plan was changed to include the six-lane pool.
The council approved the amended final cost of the construction project. Costs will be paid through three funds — the Capital Improvement Reserve Fund, Parks and Recreation and the local use tax passed by Mexico voters last month.
The city had $1 million in cash-on hand to pay for pool upgrades. The remaining portions will be paid through financing.
The council approved a resolution authorizing the city to reimburse itself to pay off the remaining balance financing via the Parks and Recreation fund and use tax.
“We said from the beginning the money from the Parks and Recreation fund as well as the use tax would be collected over time and therefore we would need to borrow those portions,“ Slagle said. ”We expect to have that borrowing in place later this year. We are going to use our own money up front, which will give us an idea of the amount we need to borrow.“
The expected maximum borrowing is $2.6 million.
ANNUAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST ORDINANCE
Any conflicts of interest among the Mexico mayor or city council members now will be a matter of public record with the state after the Mexico City Council approved an ordinance Monday that establishes a procedure for disclosing such conflicts.
This is an annual ordinance and is required for any political subdivision with an annual operating budget of $1 million or more.
The mayor, any member of the city council, city manager and deputy city manager who has a substantial personal or private interest in city operations must disclose their connection and recuse themselves from any vote related to the conflict.
A typical conflict could be those where a council member would personally benefit from a resolution or ordinance passed by the council. The ordinance also includes certain filing requirements for council members, the mayor, city manager and deputy city manager to complete with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
IN OTHER BUSINESS:
