The Lebanon Aquatic District at its Jan. 22 meeting approved a resolution essentially transfering funds in the amount of $95,000 to cover the expense of a new boiler for the Lebanon Community Pool.
Executive Director Lorlee Engler reported the LAD recently purchased a new two-boiler water system, which is planned to be installed some time between March and April. The resolution allows a previous transfer of $70,000 from the general fund into the reserve fund to be reversed and put into the capital category within the general fund, and allows a total of $25,000 to be transferred out of the personnel services category into the capital category and the materials and services/building maintenance category.
Engler reported that of the building maintenance’s beginning balance fund of $36,000, only $12,000 remains for the rest of the fiscal year. The $36,000 is a “really healthy amount,” she said, but the pool is old and “stuff breaks when you least expect it to.”
“I anticipate that, if things just keep kind of going the way they’re going, then we might run out of that money between now and June,” Engler said.
She gave an example of a recent maintenance issue with the water makeup valve, which automatically fills the warm pool when it detects low water levels. It has been overfilling the warm pool, so staff has gotten in the habit of just turning the valve off, but they sometimes forget to turn it back on. Funds were spent to determine and fix the problem.
On a side note, the recent ice storm in mid-January caused ice to form on the heater coils in the men’s locker room, Engler said. The boiler “conked out,” which prevented the swimming pool building from having any heat, and the cold weather got into the pipes, effectively breaking the heater in the men’s locker room. She’s also tackling a problem with an outdated HVAC controller, which she believes has faulty coding that cannot be accessed due to the developer’s proprietary code.
In other business:
◆ While reviewing a resolution to adopt public contracting rules, Board Director Jereme Guenther asked if a particular paragraph could be removed that indicated giving preference to people of color “and other such things” (the document was not made available to Lebanon Local for reference).
“I don’t believe that is necessary to open the door for us to discriminate against people, which I don’t think we would ever do, so why are we opening the door?” Guenther said.
The board unanimously approved the resolution as amended per Guenther’s request.
◆ Engler reported the LAD and Lebanon Community School District will be negotiating the renewal of the lease contract.
◆ The board approved a new contract and salary for the executive director, retroactive Nov. 1. Guenther noted he didn’t agree with the salary increase, stating he believes it’s more than they can afford. The contract was approved by three yes, two no votes.