Getting answers: What is happening with the old Blackfoot pool building?
BLACKFOOT, Idaho (KIFI) - People are asking our newsroom what is happening with the old Blackfoot Municipal Pool. They want to know why the building is left unused and where the money that once funded it has gone.
The building is next to Blackfoot High School with an Olympic-sized pool inside. The pool was closed in 2019 when maintenance costs went over budget and several bonds to keep it open failed.
"Looking at the various departments in the city, it was very obvious quickly that the biggest problem was the swimming pool," Mayor Marc Carroll told Local News 8.
"It had a budget of about $487,000. We took in annually about $80,000 in swimming pass revenues. Nowhere near enough to be able to keep it open.
The city also found it would take nearly $2 million to bring the pool back into working order.
One of the questions we’ve been asked is why didn’t the city just auction off the pool to a private company.
According to Mayor Carroll the answer is quite simple.
“The land itself was donated to the city through the School District 55," Carroll said.
"Part of that agreement reflected that. Should the city ever cease to operate that building as a swimming pool, the property would revert back to the school district.”
According to the school district, they have plans for the pool building but right now they have other priorities.
“Currently, the Blackfoot school district has multiple bond projects that we're focusing on," Blackfoot School District #55 Superintendent Brian Kress told Local News 8.
"We need to finish a couple and start another one. And so once we have those accomplished, we will put our focus on the prior swimming pool, the exact nature of its use in the Blackfoot school district we haven't finalized. We will take some input in and figure out how we can best serve our students and the community.”
One of the many projects District 55 is focusing on now is building a new elementary school.
Until those projects are finished, Kress said it's very unlikely anything will be done with the old municipal pool building.
