Aquatics center opening pushed to May 2015

For children, teens and adults seeking relief from the summer heat, they will have put up with the heat for at least two summers before Ben Geren Aquatics Center opens.

According to a memo from Sebastian County Judge David Hudson to members of the Quorum Court, city and county leaders met with the design team at Larkin Aquatics on Monday and the design was made to delay opening until at least Memorial Day weekend in 2015.

"The extended timeline to May of 2015 will assist in delivering a quality project and allows the opportunity for value engineering to be applied to the project planning in the interest of cost savings," Hudson wrote.

Previously, city and county leaders had projected an opening day of Memorial Day weekend in 2014.

When reached for comment on Wednesday (April 24), Fort Smith Administrator Ray Gosack said the delay was largely due to delays in funding for the project, brought on by debate on the Quorum Court about the county's ability to finance its portion of the project, including tabling a vote on the project for one month.

"I think it's the other delays we've had since February, it's not just the one month from April to May," Gosack said. "It's the other delays (that have put this off schedule)."

Even if the city and county were able to get designs approved and accept bids on the project within the next four months, Hudson wrote that it would not serve the needs of the public.

"This results in the earliest possible estimated date of completion to be in mid-August 2014. This is the end of the 2014 outdoor aquatics season."

Gosack said trying to complete the project so quickly could have also resulted in a poorly constructed facility.

"It was difficult to make the decision to delay the opening of the project, but the advice we were getting from the architect is that we would jeopardize the quality of the project and increase construction costs if we tried to rush a 2014 opening," he said. "Given the public's concerns about cost and quality, it was the only prudent decision we could make."

In Monday's discussions, Gosack said specific mention was made regarding amenities to make sure are in the project, including the lazy river, slides and water play areas for children of all ages.

Regarding other amenities, the city and county will have to make a decision on how to advance on the project and what other features could be included, including a diving well, and at what cost.

"My understanding is they want to get a firmer handle on costs and we can do that in one of two ways," Gosack said. "We can either finish the designs for the project and put it out to bid and see how the bids come in and then the second option would be to hire a construction manager at a point in the design project. The manager would give us a guaranteed price and we could know what we could or could not afford before completing the design work.

"With the first option, if we design the aquatics center with the expanded river and the dive well and it comes in above the funding we have available, the city Board and the Quorum Court would have to decide if we want to spend the extra money."

While the Board has already approved an amendment to the interlocal agreement between the two governments allowing the county to front costs for additional amenities with the city paying the money back over time, the county has not agreed to loan the money or fund its portion of the more than $800,000 that is estimated to construct the other features.

Should the Quorum Court decide to not expend the extra money, Gosack said it could be back to the drawing board.

"If they're not (going to spend the extra money), then the architect has to redesign the project and re-bid it and that would likely be a three to four month process if we do that. Plus, there would be some expense with having to redesign the project."

Either way, the aquatics center will become a reality and that's something that excites both governments, according to Hudson.

"County and city administrators are excited about the appropriation of $8 million to move forward with the aquatics facility project and look forward to continuing to work together to develop a facility that will serve Sebastian County for many years to come," he said.