The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Plans for a new swimming pool have shifted and after communicating with committee members and as a group, the Haxtun Town Council voted to move forward with new plans while also passing a resolution to apply for grant funds in an upcoming cycle with Colorado Great Outdoors.

The Haxtun Town Council met on Tuesday, July 5 at the Haxtun Community Center. Present at the meeting was Abby Henry, Swimming Pool Committee Member, who told the Council about plans to apply for a GOCO Grant totaling $900,000 in an upcoming cycle. She said her committee, tasked with raising funds for a new pool, feels encouraged with a new pool drawing and the chances of receiving a GOCO Grant for the project.

The new plans, drawn simply on a sheet of paper by the company working with the Town of Haxtun to reconstruct a new pool, shows an outdoor pool with several swimming lanes, a zero entry side with water features, a bath house and lawn access with tables and umbrellas. The rendering, Mayor Brandon Biesemeier, is similar to the initial drawing when the Summing Pool Committee first formed. Somewhere along the lines, he said, the plans grew and expanded to include a project that is projected to cost nearly $3 million. The new drawing, proposed by Henry at the meeting, includes the outdoor pool and features along with a bathhouse and mechanical room where the existing pool is now, using the existing hole. As presented, the cost of the project would be $1.2 million.

Currently, the Swimming Pool Committee has $186,000 in cash and $415,000 total with cash, pledges and in-kind donations. That number, Biesemeier said, would be nearly what the Town would need to match the GOCO grant, should it be awarded.

Henry said the deadline to submit a letter of intent to apply for the GOCO grant in this cycle was July 7. From there, applications and other information is due by mid-August.

“This route is much more economical,” said Biesemeier. “It’s not too far off from what we were going for, it’s just not a brand new pool.”

Plans would be to strip off the building and tear out all the existing building and bring the area down to the hole in the ground and rebuild.

“If we continue to seek the other option ($3 million project), we are looking at possibly another decade of fundraising,” said Council Member Mike Ensminger.

Should the grant application submitted in August be approved, the money would be awarded at the end of the year, Henry said, and work on the pool project could begin this fall.

“This is more reasonable, more doable, especially for a pool that is only open a few months out of the year,” Ensminger said.

Council member Lori Lundgren said she worries about the existing pool holding up long enough to raise $3 million should the Council opt to not go the new route. Ron Carpenter, Town Superintendent, agreed with her.

“The only thing we would be saving is the hole in the ground,” Carpenter said. “Which is a big expense.”

The Haxtun Town Council ultimately voted to move forward with the out-door pool drawing provided by Henry at the meeting and also granted the Swimming Pool Committee permission to move forward with the COGO grant application due next month.

Haxtun Community members are asked to provide feedback needed for the grant application via a survey recently put together by Colorado State University Extension Agent Stephanie Starkebaum. Starkebaum is working closely with the local committee to submit the application for the GOCO grant. The QR code to take the short survey can be found on page 3 of this week’s edition of the Herald. You can also read more about the grant application in a separate article by Starkebaum found on page 3 in this week’s issue. You can also find the survey at https://forms.gle/QEZodf2LUpkC1wtT7.

In other business the Council

• ˙Heard from Jeanette and Larry Poos who would like to donate a replica of the Statue of Liberty to the Town of Haxtun. The couple would like to see the statue be placed in the median as you enter Town from Highway 6 along Colorado Avenue. Jeanette’s parents, Eldon and Fern Salyards, were long-time community members and Eldon worked for the Town of Haxtun for many years. The Town Council plans to look at the logistics of the donation and come back to the matter at the August meeting;

• Discussed FAMLI, Family Medical Leave Insurance Program, and the pros and cons. Plans are to look at the current policy and practices in place for leave time and come back to the matter. Organizations have until the end of the year to opt out of the program or they will automatically be opted in. The Haxtun School District recently voted to opt out;

• Clerk Kelsey Harms noted that four seats will be open on the Town Council during general elections in November. Nomination packets will be due back in August for those who wish to run for a seat.