It may be almost Christmas, but swimming pool needs for next summer are on the minds of La Crosse’s park and rec workers.
The city council finance committee has okayed a transfer of $425,000 in funding originally set aside for the northside swimming pool, to pay for work on Erickson pool, near Losey Boulevard. On Thursday, Dan Trussoni from the park department told the committee that the extra funding allocated for Erickson still might not be enough to meet rising maintenance costs.
“I met on site with a company that specializes in pool liners,” said Trussoni. “We spoke with them two years ago about this, and they said it was somewhere between fifty to a hundred thousand. Now that number has climbed anywhere close to $350,000.”
Trussoni says the northside pool sees about 5000 visitors a season, while Erickson gets three times that number. Erickson would be closed for much of next summer by the maintenance project, where work is needed to fix a surge tank wall. He says Erickson and Northside are both in “dire need” of repairs. The city’s third outdoor pool, Memorial, was upgraded a few years ago.
The funding transfer goes to the full city council at its December meeting next week.
