(UPDATED at 8:30 a.m. PDT  on Tuesday, July 9, to clarify facility's potential role in hosting competitions.)

Construction of city of Cheney's new aquatic center is about to start, three years after a major mechanical failure closed the city's previous recreational facility, says Dan Curley, capital project manager at city of Cheney Public Works.

The new aquatic center will cost about $14 million and will be erected at the site of the original facility that was demolished in December, at 115 N. Eighth, at Hagelin Park, in Cheney.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in June for the project, with construction expected to commence in July and an anticipated substantial completion date of May 20, 2025. 

"If everything goes to plan, then we'll be able to open up in time for the end of the next school year," he says.

The design-build team is comprised of two Spokane-based companies, NAC Architecture and Walker Construction Inc.

Plans for the new aquatic center were created following a feasibility study by Ballard*King Associates Ltd., of Highland Ranch, Colorado, along with a community survey and public meetings to understand the demand for a new pool center. Over 850 people provided a survey response, and over 100 individuals have attended the public meetings, he says.

"The overwhelming feedback was that people did want an outdoor pool. They did want to keep it in its current location, and they said it was most important to have two different pools," explains Curley. "They thought it would be important to have a waterslide and different aquatic features."

Of the 850 survey respondents, Curley estimates about 97% of participants said an aquatic center is important to the West Plains community for swimming lessons and drowning prevention. 

The new aquatic center will have a recreational pool with a lazy river, a six-lane competition lap pool, a waterslide, and other features. Additionally, a 5,000-square-foot pool house is planned featuring locker rooms and gender-neutral changing rooms, offices for lifeguards and staff, and a community meeting room that will be available for year-round use.

The competition pool is named as such to differentiate it from the recreational pool, and while it won't meet size requirements for sanctioned competitions at 25 yards in length, it is the right size for short-form competitions and will be equipped with timing equipment for races, Curley says.

Also, he says, "We ended up adding a 500-square-foot community room that wasn't part of the original scope, but we're really excited about it because we'll be able to do birthday parties and family reunions. People will be able to rent it out." 

He adds that the city also wants to use it as a community meeting space, he says. 

"We hope that's a place where we can help bring the community together outside of the typical summer pool season."

For the recreational pool, accessibility was an important focus of the design team, while incorporating a lazy river was a popular choice of amenities by survey respondents, he says. Designers came up with a plan to achieve both ideas resulting in zero-depth entry with a maximum depth of 4 feet in the recreational pool.

"One of the things we realized during the feasibility study is that the shallower the water, the more enticing it is. There's a direct correlation between the lack of depth and the interest in the community to actually patronize the pool," says Curley. 

The waterslide feature will enable riders to emerge from a gradual slope and exit onto the pool deck rather than being deposited into a pool, he says.

"Right now we have one (waterslide) as part of the current scope of the project, and it's designed to be a middle-of-the-road option to reach as many people as possible," says Curley. "We're also in the process of seeing if we can afford to purchase an additional slide that will be slightly different, that would reduce the time in line and add a little bit of variety."

Cheney City Council will be presented with options to consider purchasing additional amenities for the facility that aren't included in the current plans. Another option is to sell sponsorships and naming rights to businesses to help pay for extra features.

Voters approved a bond measure to fund the construction of a new pool facility last August.

To accommodate the projected additional 750 daily trips to the site, North Seventh Street, on the east side of Hagelin Park, will be reconfigured as a one-way street with angled parking. Street parking also will be available on Cedar Street, south of the aquatic center, and under an agreement with the Cheney School District, additional parking will be available at Betz Elementary School, which is located northeast of the property.

The original aquatic center opened in 1964 and was experiencing mechanical issues before the failure occurred, Curley says.

"The (mechanical issue) in 2021 was kind of the last straw," he says. 

The city of Cheney plans to operate the aquatic facility. 

More planning is needed to determine admission fees and the total number of employees that will be hired to staff the facility, although Curley estimates that about 40 lifeguards should meet the demand, including a dozen lifeguards on duty during peak hours. The challenge, he says, will be finding the needed workers during a nationwide lifeguard shortage.

The ongoing shortage has impacted about a third of the country's 309,000 public swimming pools with closures and sporadic openings last year, while this year it's expected to be as bad or worse, officials with the American Lifeguard Association report.

About 71,000 visitors are expected during the aquatic facility's 10-week season, which works out to over 1,000 people a day, Curley says.

"If that comes to bear fruit, that would be an amazing economic impact for the city of Cheney," he says.