By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A new city pool in Great Bend will have to wait. Last December, the Great Bend City Council approved the design for a new 11,047-square-foot-pool to replace the current pool for the 2027 swim season. Demolition of the old pool was expected to begin shortly after the pool closed for good on Aug. 14. Plans, however, hinged on a bid near the proposed cost of $8 million. Monday night, City Administrator Logan Burns said that did not happen.
“The city received only one bid back for the proposed pool project,” he said. “It ended up being just shy of $11 million. This is dramatically over the proposed estimate we had, minus the design for it. We were estimating that to be about $8 million. We’ll be rejecting that bid, from what I’ve gathered, for the low bidder turnout, as a result of the proposed duration of the project and just the tight turnaround.”
The total project cost, including a $705,000 design contract, was estimated at $9.155 million. The new pool was to be paid for by the city's 0.15 percent quality of life sales tax, which generated just under $730,000 last year. Burns said the plan now is to move forward with the old pool and try again on a contractor.
“At this point, we plan to open the pool for another season next year, but we can’t guarantee that we’ll make it through the entire season with the shape some of the components are in,” Burns said. “We have applied for a land and water conservation grant in the amount of $2 million. We’ll know, hopefully, in January if we are awarded.”
The council may review components of the pool in the future to cut costs. The city will try to release the next bid in early spring to draw in more contractors for a more competitive bidding process.