KOB, swimming pool update

The Keep Olney Beautiful civic organization has been “100 percent” focused on completing the municipal swimming pool in Tom Griffin Park since the City shut down the 70-year-old pool two years ago, but the group has a list of projects to move on to as soon as the pool opens this summer, KOB president Kyle Turner told the Olney Enterprise.

“Completing the pool project with equipment, furniture, supplies, etcetera, was our number one goal this year,” Mr. Turner said.

“We set 100 percent focus on this and we are only a few weeks away from construction being completed. Because of that, we have paused all other project planning to protect our cash position and assure we have sufficient funds to complete the pool project in full and cover any contingencies that arise.”

KOB spearheaded the raising of more than $450,000 from private donors to build the pool complex and purchase supplies and furniture.

The pool builder, Absolute Pools of Wichita Falls, estimated recently that a few weeks of work remain, depending on the weather. The still to-do projects include setting equipment and electrical lines, installing the step trim, depth markers, rails, ladders, slide, and diving board, finishing the fence, plastering the pool, and filling with water,” Mr. Turner said.

“Again, the rain we get this week may delay some of this progress,” he said.

Once KOB passes the running of the pool back to the City, KOB “will assess our cash position and resume planning on projects in our pipeline,” Mr. Turner said.

Those projects include landscaping around the new pool, new lighting at Tom Griffin Park, landscaping upgrades at the east and west City entrance monuments, new City entrance monuments on the north and south ends of town, decorative lighting on Main Street, and seasonal banners for the Main Street light poles.

“While projects have paused during the pool construction phase, we hosted a fun, successful daddy-daughter dance and have continued fundraising and community outreach efforts,” he said. KOB partnered with Olney Economic Development Corporation at the Crawfish & Cannons festival in April, and with the Graham Chamber of Commerce for their annual Possum Pedal Bike Ride, he said.