Fourteen years ago, in 2005, the Lompoc Aquatic Center was completed and the old municipal pool was closed for good. As city projects go, it was just another example of thinking in the present and not considering how to finish the job.
The old pool, built in the late 1950s or early ’60s, served the community well for decades, but it was becoming a maintenance challenge as pipes corroded under the foundation and the warm moist chlorinated air rising from the waters of the pool corroded the metal structure supporting the building.
Repairs could be made, but folks wanted something new and shiny as the new century was beginning.
Eventually, the city engineering staff determined that even if money were spent to repair the facility, in time the corrosion would get worse and in the event of an earthquake the building could collapse. So, with council concurrence, they began the process of designing a new facility.
As with many projects, the public had decided to become involved in the design of the new project, politicians of the time agreed, and a committee of citizens with no experience designing or building a recreational pool complex was formed.
Over the next few months, what was supposed to be a three-pool project morphed into a five-pool complex.
The cost of the new aquatic center kept rising as the “committee” continued to propose changes with the council agreeing; there wasn’t enough money to either finish the new pool and or tear down the old one.
So, it just sat there, a testimony to the inability of local governments to properly estimate the total cost of a project, maintain cost control or even properly plan what was needed to finish it.
Three years after the new pool was complete, the city manager, responding to a citizens’ question about the status of the old pool “explained that the monies for the demolition of the old municipal pool will be coming from a revenue bond paid for by Redevelopment Agency (RDA) Tax Increment and the amount will not be decided until bids are submitted.”
This was in 2008.
Things have a habit of moving slowly in government and three years later the City Council established another “single purpose committee” to discuss “future uses of the old Municipal Pool.” Apparently using RDA money to remove the old pool must have fallen through the cracks; it was now 2011.
They couldn’t come up with any viable use for the old building considering the deteriorated condition of the structure, so we were back to square one — demolish it. But budgets were tight, revenue projections didn’t materialize so each budget session the demolition project was put on the back burner as a “cost savings measure.”
Then, miraculously, earlier this year, one of the budget wizards “found” some money that had been overlooked and was specifically designated for this type of project. The original estimate for the project was around $750,000, but staffers were surprised when the low bid came in at about half that.
Now the building could be torn down; but what would replace it? Once again, consideration wasn’t given to how to fill what would soon become a large vacant lot in front of City Hall.
Soon track hoes and dump trucks will show up on Ocean Avenue to munch, crunch, load and haul away a piece of Lompoc history.
— Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident since 1975, is retired from the aerospace industry and has been active with Lompoc municipal government commissions and committee since 1992, including 12 years on the Lompoc Planning Commission. He is also a voting member of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association. Contact him at news@noozhawk.com. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
