Decision on pooling more resources tonight

June Casagrande

The City Council will vote tonight on whether to chip in an

additional $94,000 to help Newport Harbor High School refurbish its

swimming pool, bringing the city’s total contribution to about

$250,000.

The city last year agreed to chip in for the pool’s refurbishment

under pressure from Newport-Mesa School Board officials who argued

that, because the city uses the pool for some of its recreation

programs, it should pay some of the upgrade costs. At the time,

school board officials wanted to split up the estimated $1-million

work into two phases.

“The school district had come to us and said, ‘You use the pool

somewhat. Would you be willing to help pay for the refurbishment?’

which we agreed to do,” City Manager Homer Bludau said.

The city agreed to chip in $156,000 -- 25% of the $625,000 price

tag for the first phase of the work. But once work started, it became

clear that there was no turning back.

“When we got engaged in the first part and saw what we were

actually dealing with it became apparent that we couldn’t do that,”

explained Paul Reed, assistant superintendent for the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District. “It was not going to be cost effective.”

Reed explained that, if the work were done in two phases, part of

the first phase would have to be torn up in order to do the second

half of the work, adding to the project’s cost.

Rather than spread out the cost of the work over a second budget

cycle -- a plan that would cost more later to postpone some spending

now -- district officials realized that the $1 million worth of work

should be done all at once. They proceeded with the work without

assurances that the city would up its contribution.

Council members will decide tonight whether to chip in an

additional $94,000 to help offset the costs.

The city uses the pool for swim classes, lifeguard training and

exercise classes. Reed said that work on the pool is nearly done and

it’s almost ready to reopen.