EudoraNews.com

After a summer of splishing and splashing, the Eudora City Pool will be closing on Labor Day. However, its maintenance and future are unanswered questions affecting how long it will stay afloat.

On Monday, the pool will close its gates until next summer. But with the closing of the pool, then the maintenance work will begin. Electric department head Eldon Brown told the Eudora city council last Monday that that one problem needs to be addressed promptly.

Were going to have to fix some of the pipe, Brown said. Its leaking.

Eudora Recreation Commission President Don Grosdidier said though there have been problems, this year was much better than 1999.

We were fairly fortunate this year in that we didnt have any fairly serious problems, Grosdidier said. Which is pretty lucky, the previous summer we actually had more problems.

Hopefully we can nurse another year out of that.

This year, the council voted to put $125,000 toward repairs and a study session to examine possible options for a new pool.

Weve put money in the budget to study the situation to determine what kind of pool would serve the community, what features and what kind of financing plans are available, said Pat Dardis, city council representative for the Eudora recreation commission.

Dardis said he believes Eudora has outgrown its pool. He said a logical step would be to look toward the future in planning for a new pool.

I think were getting to the point that we have to analyze where well be in five years, in 10 years, Dardis said. It could be a long thorough process, long planning and designing process.

Mayor Fred Stewart said he had been in contact with someone who was willing to give free estimates on a new pool. Dardis said he had also received similar information from a construction firm specializing in pools.

But first things first.

The pools repairs must be done to get it through at least next season.

Dardis said the funds are not yet available to start looking at building another pool, so the repairs must be done. The repairs will be subsidized by the $125,000, with remaining money to be used for the study session.

Were not going to have a new pool next year, he said. Theres no way.

Weve got to keep running on this one, but weve got to keep looking for the future.