Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Lifeguard Gabriel Piper keeps watch over the main pool on June 8. at Donner Aquatic Center in Columbus.
Columbus will spend about $1 million for repairs to Donner Pool.
The Columbus Parks and Recreation Board has voted to award the project to the RL Turner Corp. of Zionsville. Parks Associate Director of Business Services Pam Harrell said the company’s base bid for the work is $996,000.
The pool is scheduled to open for the season on Saturday, May 28.
“We do plan to open the pool for the public this year, and depending on the contractor’s schedule for the project, we may shorten the time the pool is open this year,” said Harrell. “It all depends on their schedule.”
In earlier interviews, parks officials said they planned to open the pool on time and hoped construction could start in late July, which would mean closing the pool early.
According to Harrell, RL Turner was the sole bidder on the project. The company submitted a bid of $1.09 million, which included both the $996,000 base bid and a $94,000 alternate. Only the base bid has been approved.
“The $94,000 was for a ventilation system, and we are choosing to hold off on that until we do a full master planning of Donner Center,” she said.
“They’re going to redo the piping for the filtration system, which will take out the old liner,” said Associate Director of Park Operations Casey Ritz. “We’ll take out the removable floor, level everything back up, making sure that we’re plenty deep for swim meets. New piping goes in for the filtration system, a new liner is put in. And we are several years past our useful life on that liner, but as part of this, we’re going to be able to upgrade to fix some ongoing issues with the filtration system.”
The city has allocated $1.075 million to the project, with Columbus City Council approving a $575,000 appropriation from the parks’ general fund and $500,000 from the city’s general fund. Harrell said that $75,000 of this is for professional architect fees; the rest is for the reconstruction work.
“We’re really close to our budget,” she noted. “And I have had conversations with city administration, and they understand that if we have change orders, we may have to come back for more money.”
There is not an inflation clause in the bid, she said.
