By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The Nephi Swimming Pool project has some more work to
get done&emdash;one thing needed to organize and a second is
to work toward forming a recreation special services
district.
Lynn Boswell presented the Ash Grove employee's group
plan to build a recreation center and/or swimming pool in
Nephi to the Juab School District School Board seeking help
with the project.
A site needs to be found and more funding needs to be
raised before the project can become a reality, said
Boswell.
"The committee should have something in the way of
designs within a month's time," said Rick Welsh, board
member.
Welsh is the board's appointed member on the
recreation committee and has been working with the swimming
pool project.
The committee now has a member from the county,
Commissioner Neil Cook and one from the school district,
Welsh. Nephi City will also have a member on the
committee.
Delanie Hathaway, board vice president, also offered
her skills in research to the committee.
"I am very supportive of forming a recreation
district," said Hathaway.
Brent Boswell, a member of the committee seeking
support for a pool, asked if the board had a preference on
whether the pool was located near the high school or whether
it mattered.
"Accessibility would be good," said Hathaway, "but
probably that does not mean it needs to be located right
next to the school."
Joyce Bracken said that the pool in Richfield is
one-half mile from the school. The school was still able to
use the facility for swimming instruction but, at the same
time, the area's patrons were able to use the pool without
it being used exclusively by the school.
There were district concerns, said Stacy Brooks, board
member, which might take priority over a pool. One of those
was the need for a new elementary school.
"I attended a junior high where there was a pool,"
said Brooks. She did agree the pool was well-warranted and
had signed the petition but was unsure what sort of money
the district could contribute.
"Boswell said that Ash Grove Cement Plant did have
some grant money available and the committee was hoping, and
fairly certain, that some of the money for the project would
come from the company.
Last year, he said, the company generously donated
money to 75 projects in areas where they had plants. That
was part of $3.2 million set aside for such projects. This
year the funding amount was higher.
"We are confident that we can get some of that money,"
said Boswell.
Boswell reminded the board that the youth of the area
needed some diversions. There was little for them to do.
Things were different when he was young, he said. In
those days kids got in trouble for doing wrong things and
then all was forgotten.
"It is not that way today," he said. Now a young
person got in trouble and they ended up in court and with a
record. He said the community needed to provide some
activities to keep young people occupied and away from
drugs, alcohol and trouble.
The school board, like Nephi City, urged Boswell to
make certain the committee was up and running, had officers
and then work toward getting the question on the ballot.
Long-term, said Hathaway, the recreation board would
be the most likely organization to make the pool a reality.
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