OGDEN — A fix of the Marshall White Center pool will likely not be included in city’s latest Capital Improvement Plan, despite a recommendation to do so from the Ogden Planning Commission.

Ogden City will hold an electronic public hearing on its 2021-2025 Capital Improvement Plan at 6 p.m. April 28. On Tuesday, the City Council voted to hold the hearing on the CIP plan as it is.

The plan includes a host of projects, ranked in order of significance and importance, that could be completed over the next five years. Conspicuously absent is a project to repair or replace the community center’s pool, which has been closed more than two years after large cracks were discovered in its surface. The pool has been a constant topic of conversation at Ogden City Council meetings, and last month the Ogden Planning Commission recommended the City Council create a separate project on the CIP to allocate $2 million to either repair the center’s pool or replace it.

Ogden City Public Services Director Jay Lowder said the city administration, obviously aware of the pool situation, considered the project but ultimately decided against including it in the plan.

“We took a holistic approach to what kind of project is in the best interest of the community,” Lowder said. “Is it best to put a brand new pool in an old facility or in a new facility, where they both have the same life expectancy?”

The city is working with a consultant called Pathways and Associates to study a number of issues related to a new city rec center: cost, size, programming, location and the possibility of raising funds for it through a voter-approved bond. The firm was recommended by the YMCA during discussions with the city about opening a Northern Utah recreational facility in Ogden.

Lowder said a meeting with Pathways has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 21, which will shed more light on how realistic funding a new rec center would be.

“Right now, we don’t know yet what is in the best interest of the community,” Lowder said. “We’ll know after the 21st if (a new rec center) is really feasible or not. That’s the reason (the pool project) didn’t come forward in the CIP.”

Angel Castillo, who was on the Planning Commission when the pool fix recommendation was made, called the situation “disappointing” and that it “shows no commitment from the administration to upgrade the Marshall White Center.”

Lowder said the city is committed to upgrading Marshall White, which was built in the early 1960s, and has a project on the current CIP that would replace old weight equipment, treadmills and spin bikes at the center, improve the facility’s front desk area, replace inside lighting and improve the kitchen area. Last year, the city appropriated $421,000 for center upgrades that included a new roof and parking lot, refinished indoor basketball gym floors, new scoreboards and bleachers, and expanded boxing facilities.

Ogden Planning Manager Greg Montgomery said the current CIP also includes $300,000 for a plan that involves an in-depth study of the center and how to best utilize it in the future.

Castillo said that plan essentially does nothing more than push the Marshall White’s limbo status out another year.