Build the swimming pool here, Palmetto tells county

“North of the river” isn’t exactly how Palmetto officials like to hear the Manatee County Board of Commissioners discuss where the county’s next swimming pool will be built.

To make that clear, Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant was asked by her commissioners to pen a letter to clarify that they want the pool close to the city and that they want it sooner rather than later.

Commissioner Tamara Cornwell asked that the letter be drafted in order to “fully document our understanding of how it will progress. I want it to be made very sound what the commission has voted on in the past and understood what the process is going to be and how we can assist in the designs that will fit the needs of our city.”

Cornwell said Palmetto has been “neglected” by the county to the point where it’s become a safety issue for the community.

“I have a lot of friends and students who don’t know how to swim because of a lack of facilities,” she said, while noting the irony of Palmetto’s surrounding waterways.

The county commission recently voted that “north of the river” would be the next location for a county pool, and has agreed Palmetto should be the location, but no action has been taken to secure funding while efforts continue to find a suitable location.

Commissioner Tambra Varnadore, a 1980s Palmetto High School graduate, said discussions about a pool in the community that could also fit the needs of the high school swim team have been brought up long before she was a student.

“When is a decision going to be made? There’s been a lot of discussion about this pool but the problem is, I can’t get excited about anything because it’s just a lot of hearsay and misinformation. I’m just waiting for a final decision to be made,” Varnadore said.

County Commissioner Carol Whitmore said the city has not been forgotten.

“And I want to be very clear about that. It’s been on the unfunded capital projects plan from day one and during the last budget cycle is when we were asking to find a location north of the river,” Whitmore said. “First we need to find the place and then deal with the funding issue later, whether the county pays for it or there are shared costs between the county and city.”

Location ideas have been bounced around from near the Buffalo Creek Golf Course to Blackstone Park. Both locations have been dismissed thus far with Buffalo Creek being too far away from the city and county staff is reporting there are too many drainage issues at Blackstone.

Varnadore said it’s time to stop the talk and begin the action.

“Yes, I’m grateful (the county commission) discusses it every year, but I’ve been waiting for 35 years and it would be nice if someone would make a decision of when this will be resolved. I don’t understand why we have to pay for stuff when everything else is taken care of by the county. It just keeps surrounding us, but never comes to us and there is just a little bit of growing frustration.”

Bryant said she would write the letter expressing the city’s concerns, but approached it a little more diplomatically.

“I feel like it will happen sooner rather than later and need to keep plodding along and we’ll get there,” Bryant said. “It’s going to be a regional facility and we want to make sure it serves an under-served area that has been under served for many years.”

This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Build the swimming pool here, Palmetto tells county."