WATERVILLE — Children and families who frequent the Alfond Municipal Pool on North Street will get to enjoy a new slide replacement pool next year, since the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to award a contract for the pool and work to install it.
The council vote awarded Vortex Aquatic Structures International a $762,702 contract to install the pool.
City Manager Michael Roy said the work will begin after the pool is closed for the season in late August.
The city received two bids for the pool replacement, including one from Weston and Sampson for $875,000, but the council chose the low bidder at the recommendation of the city’s Recreation Committee.
Money for the replacement come from a $560,000 grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation and up to $274,000 from a city pool reserve account.
In 2016 the pool underwent an engineering analysis that determined the slide pool — which includes two slides, a pool, stairs and concrete piers — had reached the end of its useful life, according to a memo to the mayor and councilors from Parks & Recreation Director Matt Skehan.
“One of the slides in particular is beyond repair and will not be in operation for the 2018 season,” the memo says.
Skehan’s department will monitor the remaining slide and features closely this year to ensure safety, it says.
Some people at Tuesday’s council meeting questioned spending $274,000 of city money for the pool, but officials said the money may be used only for pool purposes, as it is a designated fund.
In other matters, Mayor Nick Isgro read aloud a proclamation honoring David LaFountain, who is chief of both the Waterville and Winslow fire departments, as he plans to retire June 30.
LaFountain has been a loyal, conscientious city employee for 34 years and was a leader in modeling the importance of regional cooperation, the proclamation says.
LaFountain received a round of applause and a standing ovation from packed council chambers.
The council voted 5-0, with Councilor John O’Donnell, D-Ward 5, abstaining, to determine the results of the municipal election June 12 as follows: mayoral recall, yes, 1,472; no, 1,562; blanks, 31; total, 3,065.
On the O’Donnell recall question, 257 Ward 5 residents voted yes and 270 voted no; 31 ballots were left blank, for a total of 558. O’Donnell was not recalled.
Councilor Winifred Tate, D-Ward 6, was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, at which the council voted to amend the city’s marijuana moratorium ordinance to extend it six more months, until Jan. 16, 2019. They voted to do so to allow the city more time to review recent changes to state law and how they could affect the city in the future. One more vote is needed on that issue.
The council also voted to create a committee to study marijuana sales in the city. Names of people to be appointed will come before the council at a future meeting.
Councilors voted to change the zoning at 110 College Ave., the site of the former Goudreau’s Retirement Inn, from residential-B and Commercial-C to Contract Zoned District/Commercial-A so that apartments can be developed there. Apartments are the only permitted use, and the owner is required to install and maintain an 8-foot-tall fence along the rear property lines and a 6-foot-tall fence along the easterly property line of 5 Myrtle St. The council amended the order to include that the owner also must erect a fence between the former inn property, now owned by the Booker family, and the rear of the property, which the Goudreau family still owns.
The Planning Board voted last month to send the rezoning request to the council, which has authority to make zoning changes.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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