MANSFIELD — Mark Abrams said Tuesday evening the City of Mansfield will build a new $8 million pool/aquatics center at Liberty Park if a proposed 0.25-percent income tax increased is approved by voters in May.
“Our department is unique, or my department is unique, in the fact that if you’re giving me $15 million, you can walk out to the park and you can put your hand on that $15 million,” said Abrams, the city’s parks and recreation superintendent.
Abrams made the comment during a City Council parks committee meeting while being questioned by 3rd Ward council member Jon Van Harlingen.
The new aquatics center is part of the City of Mansfield’s $29 million “master parks” plan, the framework of which council approved in 2020. The proposed tax increase would generate nearly $15 million during its four-year run, averaging around $3.7 million annually.
The only money now going to the parks and recreation department is $850,000 a year from the city’s parks, recreation, illumination, demolitions and emergency services (PRIDE) tax, which was successfully renewed by voters earlier this year.
Van Harlingen said legislation given a second read by council on Tuesday does not specify a pool/aquatics center in its language, merely asking voters to approve four-year tax increase for “parks capital improvements.”
“The legislation in itself is very broad, very general. It talks about additional income tax receipts to be used for exclusively for ‘parks’ capital improvements and maintenance, thereof.’ And we’re talking about pools. So I just had to bring that up,” Van Harlingen said.
Work done in the city’s parks is visible and transparent, Abrams said, adding the city would not begin collecting the new revenue until January 2023.
He said funds from the levy would also allow work tp begin on other aspects of the “master parks” plan, including security, maintenance and connectivity.
“This is not that something that you can’t see, that’s not being done, that’s not being developed, not being fixed,” said Abrams, who presented council with drawings done showing what the new pool/aquatics center could look like.
Drawings of what new pool/aquatics center could look like
“If we have a broken window and we fix it, you know we spent the money on that. If you pass the levy and we build a pool, you know we spent the money on the pool. Or if we build a trail, or whatever it is,” he said.
Van Harlingen continued to press the issue.
“You brought us some documentation on some really nice looking pools and the news media is sitting here — so that’s what we’re talking about?” he asked.
Abrams said, “Well, that is is the big-ticket item. It is what everybody talks about. Nobody wants to talk about putting in toilets. I mean, let’s be honest.”
Nearing the end of the 24-minute committee meeting, parks committee chair Cheryl Meier asked Assistant Law Director Christopher Brown if the wording in the legislation needed to be more narrow.
Brown said the law director’s office helped draft the bill.
“It is our recommendation that leaving it broad like this is best for city purposes,” Brown said. “This is still limited to parks’ capital equipment.
“It’s our recommendation that this meets a good fit between being somewhat broad when it applies to parks, but tailored specifically enough that it’s not gonna be used to, for instance, buy police cruisers or to give, the public works director, a raise or anything like that,” Brown said.
The legislation putting the proposal on the May 3 primary ballot is scheduled for a vote on Dec. 21.
The city’s only public pool, located at Liberty Park and built in 1938, closed early this summer due to maintenance issues and city officials have said it will not reopen again.
Abrams said there was a problem inside a “water line that’s probably been buried for 85 years” that led to problems with the retaining wall inside the pool pump house.
“We’re not exactly sure why it blew out or how, but there’s a major issue,” Abrams has told. “We will not be opening the pool in 2022.”
