NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Amy Conkling with Hutch Rec is glad that Salt City Splash and the Buhler Pool have had a good start to their summer seasons thanks to great work by the maintenance staffs to keep those facilities running, as other area pools have struggled to open due to pump issues.
"Thankfully, we have really hard working crews, both on the Hutch Rec side and the City of Hutch side working to get that facility open," Conkling said. "Buhler, as well. They are a smaller scale pool, but they are an aging facility with older pumps, so they do a lot of tender, loving care, making sure that the pools are up and running and give that the care that they need to open on time."
Conkling noted that discussions and data collection continue on the idea of moving back to a neighborhood pool model for the city of Hutchinson in the coming years.
"Tony Finlay, our executive director at Hutch Rec, myself and Justin Combs with the City of Hutch, he's the parks and facilities director, we were the smaller committee that was meeting with the consultant," Conkling said. "We continue to meet with them and there are definite legs to that movement and really that thought process of moving back to the neighborhoods. With Hutch Rec, we've done a lot of neighborhood development work. We are really big into listening to what the residents and what our community wants and also what we need in our community. We continue to track that data to really be strategic in giving the city council and our Hutch Rec Board of Commissioners as much information as they want and as they need to make those important decisions. There's a price tag to everything that we do. We want to make sure that we are good stewards of our money and we are getting the biggest bang for our buck in what our community not only needs, but what they desire in that quality of life."
Because they are still getting data this season, they'll plan to look at it after folks are done swimming in 2022.
"We have a joint City Council-Hutch Rec Board of Commission meeting that we do, one in the spring, one in the fall," Conkling said. "Our goal and our deadline is to give them that data for that Octoberish meeting that we schedule with City Council and the Hutch Rec Board of Commissioners. We're really outlining the options that we have, to keep Salt City Splash along with a neighborhood pool or two, or doing all neighborhood pools. We're trying to get as many options on the table. Again, we want to make very informed decisions, with solid data that will back it."
There are just a few years left of life at Salt City Splash before significant renovations would be necessary, so the scope of that is also a topic on the table if any of that is kept for the long term.