By Allen Dinkel
Junction City manager
As we move into the month of June we will all begin looking forward to Summer and the warmer months. For most, school is out, and our activities shift to the outdoors.
Naturally the warm weather means activity at the City Swimming Pool. The pool opened on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and the crowds at the pool have been great. One big issue is having enough Life Guards to operate the pool. Like many other pools, that is a challenge for us to hire enough staff to not only work when the pool is open each day but also to teach swimming lessons. The shortage of guards can lead to the pool being closed at certain times during the week. That is not what anyone wants to do, but sometimes there is no choice.
We are often asked why the pool closes in early August. Simply because we do not have an adequate number of guards as many head back to school, and we are forced to close the pool. In the first City I managed in Western Kansas, we had a group of Mom’s that believed the pool should stay open until Labor Day. They all kept their guard certification and came out and worked for a couple of hours each day after school in mid to late August and did a few weekend hours for the kids to enjoy the pool for a bit longer in the season. I haven’t been able to reduplicate that since, but it was a great thing in that community.
I know some people say that Junction City needs a new pool or Water Park with many features for all to enjoy. I don’t argue that, but a facility like that will probably be in the 7-to-10-million-dollar price range. An indoor facility would probably be nearly double that amount. I really do believe as the City continues to whittle down the General Obligation debt that a new facility will be doable in 6 to 8 years.
In the City I mentioned above, back in 1997 the City built a new swimming pool. Not a major aquatic park, but it was the first pool in the west part of the State with large slides and other features and was modern for that time and people drove from as far as 100 miles away on the weekend to bring their family to that pool. When the pool was being built I had a resident stop by my office to talk about the pool. He asked me if the old pool made money and I responded with no. He then said will the new pool make money, and I leaned back in my chair and answered, probably not. Of course, he said if the pool does not make money, why do we have one? I looked up at him and said that the parks and the City Cemetery don’t make money and like the pool we have to have them for our community. Simply a pool is just needed in a community as well as baseball parks, golf course, parks, walking trails, and the list can go on and on. No one wants the City to charge admission fees for the pool you would have to have if profit was the motif.
Over the past few years, the City has made improvements at the North Park Baseball complex and yes money is spent to make improvements at Rathert Field. Don’t forget the playground at the 5th Street or Swimming Pool Park. A few years ago, a group of concerned citizens, called Quality Play for All, made the push to turn this into the great playground it is. It took a mixture of grants along with private donations and City dollars to make it happen. Of course, know we need to look at the other playgrounds and parks including a potential new playground in the far western portion of the City.
Okay, I know some will say the City should just focus on streets. Yes, they are important and that is why the City will have over $2.5 million in street projects this year. Another $300 K will be spent on some alley improvements and soon the City will bid out a sidewalk improvement project that will include taking down the rock wall at the 5th Street Park and allow for more parking there. Also, an ADA issue will be addressed on the sidewalk in Heritage Park as the sidewalk on the north side of the park does not meet those standards.
Are the streets perfect? No, they are not. But the increased amount of dollars the City has spent over the recent years is making progress. At the same time taxes have remained the same and as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, taxes in Junction City are more average and certainly not the highest for cities of this size.
Yes, streets are important, but we have always have to find the right balance as those other services and facilities are needed to make this a well-rounded community.