By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members have taken the next step in a planned reconstruction of Buena Vista Pool on the city’s north side.
The council during its Feb. 10 meeting unanimously approved a resolution authorizing City Manager Shawna Burkhart to advertise and give notice of a request for qualifications (RFQs) for the evaluation, design and build services for the Buena Vista Pool Rehabilitation Project.
After the heading of the agenda item was read during the Feb. 10 meeting, Mayor Al Arreola called for a motion on the resolution. Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez made the motion to approve the resolution, with Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus giving the second.
When Arreola asked if council members had any questions, Gutierrez asked Burkhart if she had any idea “when work might begin” on the reconstruction of the pool.
Burkhart replied, “No, not at this time. We are simply trying to get those bids and trying to get that started this summer, early in the summer.”
“That it would be ready early in the summer?” Gutierrez asked.
“No,” Burkhart replied.
“I didn’t think so,” Gutierrez said.
“We will have one pool open this summer,” Burkhart said.
Arreola then recognized Scot Carcasi, the city’s operations and compliance manager, who walked to the podium to field any additional questions from council members.
Carcasi told the council, “Like Ms. Burkhart said, this is the bid process, so it takes a little bit of time. One of our concerns is, is the construction will be starting during the busiest season for pool companies, so we’re going to hopefully try to get somebody as quickly as possible, but a lot of it will depend on their availability.”
Gutierrez asked Carcasi, “It (the Buena Vista Pool) would not be safe to use?”
Carcasi replied, “No, our current plan is the pool will be open until construction starts. Lazaro (Castro, the city’s parks superintendent) and I just discussed this the other day. We bought enough chemicals for both pools, in the event that construction can’t start until after pool season. The Buena Vista Pool will be open. Both pools will be open.”
“That’s great news. Thank you,” Gutierrez replied.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez commented, “This is just a request for qualifications.”
“Yes, sir,” Carcasi replied.
Sanchez added, “We’re not deciding on anything right now. We’re just asking for qualifications, to see who out there is qualified to do such work, and not the actual work, as far as construction of the pool, but the design of the pool.”
“Correct. It will be a design/build. We’re hoping the pool company will design it and build it,” Carcasi added.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. asked if there were any local companies that might be able to do the work or if the advertisements would only go statewide.
Carcasi said the advertisements will go out, and “we would be happy” if a local pool company elected to submit an RFQ.
“We prefer using local vendors as much as possible, but that will just depend on who answers the request for qualifications,” Carcasi replied.
When the mayor called for the vote, six members of the council voted in favor of the motion, none voted against, and Councilman Randy Quinones abstained.
Quinones told The 830 Times after the meeting he abstained because he is the part owner of a local pool company that could possibly submit an RFQ for the work.
According to information included in the council’s agenda packet, the city has allocated $1.5 million “for the demolition and renovation of the Buena Vista Pool.”
The information included in the council packet also describes the work to be done on the pool: construction of “reinforced pneumatically applied concrete, with slip-resistant concrete decks, playscapes, interactive water features and/or slides.”
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