Pool plan: New location remains nagging question

Residents might be able to swim in a new Greenwood pool as early as the summer of 2014, but where?

The Greenwood City Council wants to meet that deadline and voted 6-3 Monday to give preliminary approval to adding a recreational facility that would cost about $10 million to a list of projects that could be paid for with tax-increment financing district dollars. That vote was the first step required in the process of using tax district money to pay for a new pool, and the proposal will come up for final council approval next month.

Council members Bruce Armstrong, Ron Bates and Brent Corey voted against the proposal. Armstrong said he supported a pool but questioned whether it was appropriate to spend TIF dollars on an aquatic center and feared doing so could delay the project. Bates expressed concerns about the size and cost of the proposed aquatic center.

Corey said he wanted to cap the project at $10 million, locate a pool at Freedom Park and not let the redevelopment commission prolong the planning process when several study groups already have recommended that location.

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