Danny Dunagan and George Wangemann said they wanted to table the $700,000 construction project to replace the old Fair Street pool, now closed.
Dunagan said it was too close to the new Frances Meadows Community Center now under construction and he's unsure about maintenance and operation cost.
"We extended the footprint of the Frances Meadows Center so that we could have more meeting space," Dunagan said. "The Neighborhood Center is less than one mile from this facility, we don't know what this facility is really going to cost to maintain and we need to make sure we can take care of what we're building and not take on anything else."
That position drew sharp reaction from Mayor Protem Myrtle Figueras, who said Council had already approved funding for the project and Thursday was supposed to review new bids for it.
"The bids actually came in and after we've gone through a year of bidding and grading and tearing down its time to move forward," Figueras said. "This was done in closing of Fair Street to in order to keep going with activities for recreation in this area."
Figueras also pointed out that Fair Street is in a district eligible for just over a half million dollars in federal Community Development Block Grant Funds for the project, with Gainesville Parks and Recreation paying $140,000.
Parks and Recreation Director Melvin Cooper told City Council that the current bids for the Fair Street project would be good for 90 days; after that they could expect the cost to go up.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/6/88751