OGDEN — In what appears to be an unprecedented move, the Ogden City Planning Commission has asked the City Council to allocate $2 million to precipitate a prompt fix of the Marshall White Center’s pool. 

By a vote of 6-2, the planning commission approved a motion Wednesday night made by Commissioner Angel Castillo, which recommends the council move certain Marshall White repairs to the top of the city’s 2021-2025 Capital Improvement Plan priority list. Castillo’s motion also recommended the City Council create a separate project to allocate $2 million to either repair the center’s pool or replace it. 

The motion also calls for the city to explore developing a new community center on the footprint of the Marshall White, in an incremental fashion with building and demolition happening simultaneously, allowing the center to remain open.

The pool has been at issue for two years now.

Sometime before March 5, 2018, the pool developed five large cracks in its concrete surface. Shortly after the cracks were discovered, Ogden City crews analyzed the pool and deemed it unsafe for continued use. Engineers determined the pool was at risk of having a “catastrophic opening,” which could present life safety issues if the water wasn’t drained. The pool has been closed since shortly after the cracks were discovered.

After the pool was drained, the city sought repair and replacement bids from contractors, but those bids came back higher than officials expected. Based on results from 14 different “core samples” underneath the pool, a consulting company called Water Design, Inc. recommended the city either replace the pool altogether, or repurpose it and use it from something other than swimming. Initial cost estimates to renovate the pool are between $1.9 million and $2.7 million, according to council documents.

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

The city appropriated $421,000 for the Marshall White Center last year, which will pay for a new roof, a new parking lot at the center, refinished indoor basketball gym floors, new scoreboards and bleachers and expanded boxing facilities. But Castillo contends the center’s pool has always been the facility’s main draw. 

”Those things are great,” she said. “But you’re still not fixing the main thing people need and want. We need to take a stand and put some money and a timeline out there.”

While community members have raised concerns about the pool at numerous council meetings since the pool was shut down, Caldwell said he wants the Marshall White situation solved as much as anyone, but a fix isn’t as simple as allocating money. He said department heads pore over budget decisions throughout the year and his administration puts money where they best see fit, trying to remove emotion from the equation. The possibility of YMCA coming to town and building a new rec center is also a major factor. 

”We definitely want to measure twice and cut once,” the mayor said.

Both Castillo and Caldwell said they’d never heard of the planning commission recommending a project to the council. The planning commission typically reviews requests from other entities, then forwards a recommendation on to the council. Castillo said she was unsure she could even make such a motion, but checked with the city’s attorney’s office and got clearing.

It’s not yet certain when the council would consider the planning commission recommendation.