Westport Pools President Ryan Casserly, center, provides information Tuesday to community members about the proposed upgrades to Fairground Pool at the community room of the Audrain County Courthouse.

Fairground Pool is nearing the end. Originally built in the mid 1980s, its amenities no longer are the optimal summer entertainment and recreation venue for multiple generations. So, city staff started in 2007 to make plans for its replacement. Community members had an opportunity Tuesday to meet with and ask questions of representatives from Westport Pools.

Westport was the winning design-build firm the Mexico City Council selected for the new pool construction. Construction plans are not yet final, but the city hopes to have final construction plans in place by May 1.

The design-build process to seek a contractor started two years ago, said Parks and Recreation Director Chad Shoemaker. The city had to follow a process laid out by the state, he said.

The budget for the pool replacement is $3.5 million, dependent on approval of a local option use tax April 7 by Mexico voters. If the use tax is voted down, the city only will have around $1.2 million available for pool upgrades, which is money it already has saved. A 2018 Supreme Court decision allowed states to collect taxes on online sales. In Missouri, the state already is collecting the use tax on out-of-state and online sales, but the law is written so that county governments and municipalities have to put a use tax vote to the people to be able to receive what the state is collecting.

"I call it a fairness tax, to be honest," council member Chris Williams said. "Look at a place like Melody's. It's not fair where she is selling a $5,000 diamond and if you buy it here you're going to pay 9% sales tax, but if you gone online, you're not going to even pay 5%. From a consumer standpoint, I guess that's good, but that's not fair to Melody's."

The use tax is the same as the city sales tax and would increase city revenue annually by about $152,000 if approved. The use tax is not in addition to sales tax. It is applied to online purchases, which the state is collecting but not yet remitting to the city because voters have not yet approved the collection of the tax.

"We have a fallback position in our contract with [Westport] in case [the tax question] doesn't pass," Shoemaker said.

The design of the pool is the ninth version since the initial pool reconstruction proposal.

"We think we are close enough to start showing it to the public [to get input]," Shoemaker said.

A pool is a community center without walls said Westport President Ryan Casserly. The current pool is a 50-meter lane pool, with a deeper diving area, a bathhouse and little to no shade. The design from Westport proposes removing the 50-meter pool to replace it with a zero-degree entry pool that deepens to three feet. That pool connects to a 25-meter lane pool that goes from a four-foot depth to 12 feet. Features over the deep end include a diving board, a 10-foot tall slide that drops riders directly into the pool and an acrylic climbing wall at the pool's edge angled so climbers can drop into the pool.

Other features include shaded and unshaded lounge seating and shaded and unshaded round picnic style tables. The bathhouse will be removed and will be replaced by multiple family changing rooms. There will be deck showers so guests can rinse off before getting into the pool. There are other splash and play features for younger guests in the zero-degree section. A separate splash pad can be utilized before the pool opens for the season and can remain open past pool closure.

The pool still will open Memorial Day, but will close early on July 5 so that construction can start through the summer and rest of year to be open for a full season starting in 2021.

"Gone are the days where [teenagers] are the only people that go to these pools. Senior population down will go if you build it right. Building it right means it is easy to get into the pool, there's shade, fun things for kids," Casserly said, adding the pool will have better Americans with Disabilities Act access via a guide rail along one side of the pool and water wheelchairs.

The pool upgrades made possible via the use tax will keep families in Mexico, council member Vicki Briggs said. Families already are visiting Centralia, Vandalia and Moberly instead of Mexico before of currently better pool facilities, Williams added.

"When I see this plan, I think my family would stay here and I think families that are leaving to go to Centralia, Vandalia or wherever, they are going to stay here. There's more here [in this plan] than what's at these other pools," he said.

cdunlap@gatehousemedia.com

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