Council updated on pool, housing projects
Olney Mayor Rue Rogers updated the City Council on the progress of homes planned by Crombie Properties of Olney and the Groves brothers of Possum Kingdon, and the municipal swimming pool. Lance and Corey Groves are building a three-bedroom, two-bath home on Oak Street and Avenue E as part of their “Rural Route Revival” streaming series set to debut early next year. The documentary-style series about renewing rural towns in Texas will feature Olney in its first installment. Mayor Rogers said the weather had impeded progress on the project.
“I’m waiting on lumber, framers are ready to frame 304 [W. Oak St.], concrete guys will rough in the next two lots in the next week or two,” Lance Groves said.
The builders also are looking to build a home across the street from 304 W. Oak St., and to put a five-bedroom, two-story home on an empty lot on Howard Street and Avenue D, Mayor Rogers said.
Crombie Properties, which planned on purchasing up to 10 lots from the City, has not yet started construction partly because they had encountered problems with the survey of the first lot, Mayor Rogers said. “The survey stakes are in front of the neighbor’s house,” he said. “The first rattle out of the box and it’s a property line problem.”
The mayor also updated the Council on the progress of the new municipal swimming pool plans. Last June, the Council permanently closed the 1950s-era pool because of structural cracks and tasked the Keep Olney Beautiful group with raising money and coming up with a plan for a new pool in Tom Griffin Park. The City and KOB estimated the total cost of replacing the swimming pool, bathrooms, and concession stand at $350,000.
The City plans to employ Absolute Pools by Jason of Wichita Falls to build the pool beside the playground equipment and the new pavilion within the park’s circular road, Mayor Rogers said. “We’ve got the quote and the quote includes a pool that is not the same size as the one it’s replacing but that one was built 60 years ago and … this pool wouldn’t be as big,” he said. “It would be sufficient in size with newer amenities and a newer concession bathroom as well. And the idea that KOB came up with was to put this new bathroom concession next to the pool but also have bathrooms on both sides.”
This design would allow the City to demolish the old brick restrooms on the northwest corner of the park and use the new restrooms during the off-season, he said. The City would have to remove two dead trees from the park to make way for the pool and relocate two water lines, he said. The old pool would be filled in with dirt from the new pool to create green space, he said.
KOB plans to build the pool complex “through donations and in-kind donations,” he said. “Obviously, it won’t be ready this summer. I would love to start construction at the end of this summer and have it finalized completed and ready to go next summer without any hiccups.”