The Camp Verde town pool will stay open until Labor Day if the Town Council approves its new budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
It still might not open for several days, though, while the town’s parks and recreation department works to repair unexpected issues with the pool.
Regardless, the council wants the pool opened as soon as possible.
Under the budget recommended by Town Manager Michael Scannell, the pool would close Friday, Aug. 7. It’s not that Scannell wants to reduce the pool’s hours, he’s just looking for ways to keep the budget balanced while allowing the town to continue providing as many services as possible.
The town was left in a bigger bind when the Camp Verde Unified School District board voted to cancel nearly $20,000 of shared funding for the pool late last year.
While no vote has officially been made on the town’s budget, the council is hoping it can keep the pool open until Labor Day.
It could happen if the town decides not to spend the money on a consulting firm to look at town code and spends it on the pool instead.
The Town Council agrees that its land use codes are obsolete and sometimes counterproductive.
Matt Morris, the former housing department director, has been reassigned thanks to the elimination of the town’s housing department.
Now he’s the town’s special projects administrator, and he’s been tasked to look at the town’s codes and revise them.
Morris said he’d like to bring in a consulting firm at around $150,000 to analyze the current codes and offer advice.
If a firm were used part-time, Morris said the work could be done perhaps for around $50,000.
If Morris does the work alone, with limited support from town staff, it could add another year to the two-and-a-half to three year process Morris said the code revision might take.
But the pool is still a priority for the town.
“I would like to have seen it open two weeks ago,” said Vice Mayor Brenda Hauser.
