Lincoln Park pool gets first round of funding. But what will it look like?

The new Lincoln Park pool is expected to open by the end of 2019, but it remains unclear what it will look like.

Manatee County commissioners on Tuesday awarded John Swift & Associates $289,000 for construction services and design, which will determine what kind of amenities the pool will eventually have. Early conceptual renderings included a lot of wish-list items, some of which may not make it into the final design and others that have already been eliminated.

Hopes were for an Olympic size pool complete with a dive well to host state and regional diving competitions, but setting a maximum budget at $3 million will likely mean no dive well and certainly not an Olympic-size pool.

Parks and Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker said every company interviewed for the job agreed it could be done for $3 million if the county stayed within some basic features. They include a a pool big enough to support high school swimming competitions, a support pool, shade structures, locker rooms, an office and the expansion of the existing splash pad.

“We don’t need an Olympic-size pool,” Hunsicker said. “We have one at G.T. Bray. We are looking at a 25-meter pool that will support swimming competitions, but most importantly is that our goal is to instill learning to swim and being comfortable in the water. We have a lot of drownings that did not need to happen, so for Manatee County, learning to swim is the primary purpose of a pool.”

Hunsicker said final design could come back for approval by January, “but we expect this pool to open at some point in 2019.”

There has been contention along the way between the county and the city of Palmetto. Manatee County had asked the city to contribute $1 million. In response, the city offered $850,000 over 15 years, plus the land for the pool.

It was primarily the city pushing for the dive well, which Hunsicker said would be an additional cost.

“The city commission expressed a desire for that feature, but it will be more than what the county has set aside,” he said. “That includes what the city is currently offering. If they wanted it brought to the table, there has to be a funder behind it because it’s not our recommendation. It’s not related to our goals of learning to swim. Perhaps those others need to contribute to those costs of improvements.”

City officials have expressed in the past that they were being left out of the design process, but Hunsicker said a member of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has sat on the selection committee as a voting member, “so there has been full transparency.”

County Commissioner Robin DiSabatino said the county should have a written commitment from Palmetto before any more money is invested and that their current offer isn’t good enough.

“$850,000 over 15 years is way too long,” she said.

The pool will be the first the county has built in 30 years and the first one north of the Manatee River. Hunsicker said given the growth in Palmetto and Parrish, the county’s future new pools will likely be located in those areas.

“This is the first one,” Hunsicker said. “There’s more pools needed in our action plan and there will be others to follow. We’ll have to look at what is the next generation of pools for Manatee County, wherever they are.”

Commissioner Charles Smith expressed frustration that the county was setting a maximum price of $3 million.

“There were supposed to be several designs come back with several options,” Smith said. “I truly want you to understand that the public is watching. This isn’t a Lincoln Park thing, it’s a north of the river thing and they are watching to see if they get shortchanged. If we are gong to set up a limit right now, we are setting up the community for failure.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 3:07 PM.