The Finance committee voted to continue discussion of an ordinance to spend $350,000 of American Rescue Plan Act Grant (ARPA) Funds to pay for engineering design and development costs regarding construction and renovations to Budlong Pool.

In a press conference last week Mayor Hopkins proposed the ordinance to approve the use of ARPA funds to hire engineers to create a comprehensive plan to implement the rebuilding of Budlong Pool at one third its current size and renovations to the bathhouse to bring it up to code. At the press conference Hopkins said that there is no option to fix the pool and maintain its current size. This is only the first step in implementing the first phase of the mayor’s original plan for a complete redesign of the facility.

With a price tag of approximately $3.5 million, Councilmember Aniece Germain and Councilmember Robert Ferri expressed concern regarding the expenditure of the $350,000 as a first step in a plan that would later require finding almost $4 million more at a later date.

“We put Band-Aids for years on this facility, and that worked, but it no longer works,” Hopkins said at his press conference. “The engineering report that I have said that this pool is no longer handicap accessible, it’s not safe.”

This sentiment was echoed by Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli in Monday’s Finance committee meeting.

“That pool was built in 1940,” Renzulli said. “Every other pool built in the WPA era has already been closed or redone. We can’t plug holes in the pool anymore.”

However, according to a feasibility study submitted to the council in April of 2022 by Federal Hill Group LLC, there is an option for repairing the pool, updating it and the bathhouse to handicap compliance and maintaining the pools current size while eliminating the need for “Band-Aid” repairs for a total cost estimated at about $1 million dollars less than just phase one of the mayor’s plan.

“As you all know I have been advocating for Budlong Pool for quite a while, but this ordinance requires your full attention,” said Germain. “I want to mention that I am not in favor of using $350,000 from ARPA money. I firmly believe that every member of this committee should be against it as well.”

Germain went on to reference the feasibility study done last year. Reminding the council of the study’s first option for repair that maintains the size of the pool and updates the facilities to code compliance, Germain requested that the Finance Committee seek to have the members of the Federal Hill Group who did the original study to come before the council to explain it. The questions she would like to ask are: is there a genuinely feasible option for simply repairing the pool, and would it be cheaper than plans to rebuild the pool at a smaller size.

“I am frankly embarrassed that we are here at this point,” said Council President Jessica Marino. “Something so simple, something that we all agree should be operational. Something that we also agree on is that we should do it at as low of a cost as we possibly can, and yet we still haven’t begun to accomplish that goal. Councilwoman Germain is right to have her reservations and her concerns.” 

Marino said that the city has a charter that requires contracts to go out to bid. She said that the process of Budlong Pool discussions began with the study from Federal Hill LLC and that they were unknown to the council causing the report to feel worthless.

“Now we know that finances are tight,” said Marino. “We do have ARPA funding. The administration is coming to us asking the council to approve $350,000 for this design and construction plans that you’re mentioning, and yet from my account I think it would put some of the council members more at ease if it wasn’t putting the cart before the horse.”

Marino said that it would have created more trust by the council, in regards to the actions being taken by the administration to plan for the design of the pool, if the contract purchaser were to have gone out and put it up for bid and brought back proposals. She said that she personally would have felt more comfortable if she could have seen what the specifics and plan were before voting to approve $350,000 without any details on the exact breakdown of the costs.

“No one likes the delay, but things have to be done the right way and that’s not our fault as we sit here,” Marino said to Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti. “The fact that the mayor had plans drawn up. The mayor took it upon himself to have the plans drawn up. He didn’t ask for a public workshop with the council. To say that just because he had some plans and no one came forward and said ‘those were no good’, that’s not fair.”

Council Vice President Lammis Vargas said that she would feel better knowing that there was a request for quotes (RFQ) that detailed the dollar amounts required for the design and engineering.

“I would probably think differently on how I would be voting had I known that it would have gone through RFQ or RFP(request for proposals) on this dollar amount,” Vargas explained. “I don’t believe it would cost the city any money to put it out and go through that procurement process. An RFQ can take roughly 14 days or so and then the scoring and everything else that goes with it. I’d sleep better laying my head on the pillow at night just making sure that the $350,000 would be the dollar amount that is going to come before us than just saying here’s $350,000 and then not knowing what the next step is.”