Ottawa Council awards $6.7 million bid for new Riordan Pool

The City of Ottawa has awarded Vissering Construction out of Streator a $6,714,670 bid to build new Riordan Pool, which came in $1.7 million over the budget of $5 million.

The original planned cost was $4.5 million, although Mayor Dan Aussem said that estimate came in a couple of years ago when building costs were lower.

“We had our prices that were a couple of years old and when we opened bids, I was concerned at the way prices have gone up with the unavailability of materials,” Aussem said. “I know the architects reached out to a number of other contractors, specifically one up north that does buildings and pools and could have been a one stop shop but they were busy. We ended up with Vissering and we’re comfortable with them.”

Vissering Construction has done work for the City of Ottawa in the past on projects such as the sewage plant and the NCAT bus shelter.

“We know they’ll do a good job even though it costs a little more,” Aussem said. “It’s like every other project going on right now. The YMCA’s running into the same issue.”

Commissioner James Less has remained the sole nay vote against building the pool and voiced his dissent again during Tuesday night’s council meeting. Less said he believes the city’s need for a municipal swimming pool should be reevaluated, especially since it’s being paid for with taxpayer money.

The city’s intention is to use the tax money from marijuana sales to cover the cost of the pool. Ottawa typically makes around $30,000 per month from it’s marijuana sales tax.

“We’ve been able to man our swimming pools but we had some challenges the last year we were open and we ended up shortening some of our days,” Less said.

Less said the last year the pool was open didn’t have nearly enough people using it to justify building a new pool, although he also stated that may be due to the old facility being in need of an upgrade.

Commissioner Wayne Eichelkraut said he believes a city the size of Ottawa should have a pool, citing Peru as a city that doesn’t have one. It now has a large splash pad.

“The people in Peru now are complaining because they want a pool because the splash pad isn’t exactly a pool,” Eichelkraut said.

The original pool, which opened in 1966, will be demolished to begin construction. It would have needed more than $500,000 in repairs to open in time for 2022 and the council decided in January it made more sense to spend that money on a new pool rather than pay for repairs every year.

Ottawa officials made an agreement with Marseilles for Ottawa residents to utilize the Marseilles pool this summer, in exchange for Ottawa providing supervisors.

The plan at this time is still to have the new pool open in time for the summer of 2023.