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Commission clarifies swimming pool issues
BY GEOFF COX • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - Mattern and Craig, the engineering firm hired to prepare bid documents for the Highland swimming pool, will facilitate a mandatory meeting of all contractors and subcontractors interested in bidding on the project at the Highland courthouse this Tuesday at 2 p.m.
The Highland County Recre- ation Commission reported Monday this is a change in the initial process to make sure the process is inclusive to all parties interested in building the pool.
Commission chair Sherry Sullenberger explained this was the change made to the pool bid advertisement, and was done to ensure an open process and to "have opportunity for locals to solicit some business."
Sullenberger added the exclusion
of the meeting in the first advertisement was inadvertently implied
to Mattern and Craig through concerns with the timeline of the project and was unintentional. "I feel like I'm wading through this pool one step at a time," she said.
Commission members also expressed their satisfaction with the fill and temporary access road work recently completed at the site by the McCrays' business, Spruce Hill Excavating, with fill dirt donated by Jerry Rexrode.
"The reason I got McCray to do it is because he got it done," said Cavell. "It's (the pool) is going to be a reality. Come spring we'll be digging."
Final bids for the pool are due Nov. 20 and the commission expects the winning bid to cost most of the money raised already and the $110,000 matching grant for construction of the pool alone.
"We won't go to the next step (the support building) on borrowed money. We'll raise the money," Cavell said, maintaining her position the pool can be built without taxpayer money.
Cavell then reported a commitment from B&S Contractors to help with the parking lot - 200 tons of stone donated by Rockbridge Stone, and $210 donated by High Valley property owners to support her claims.
"We certainly appreciate that," she said. "It's coming in."
Tuesday, Cavell said she had spoken with a representative of the grant concerning the federal government's role. Cavell said she was told the Virginia Outdoors Fund does not "micro-manage its projects."
She explained the stipulation is that the two-acre pool site must be used for recreational purposes or the government will take over management of the land. "If worst comes to worst, we could fill it up and make it a tennis court, as long as it is used for recreation," the government won't get involved, she said.
In other commission business Monday:
¦ AD/RD Brian Parker discussed programs for the fall including Sunday night open-gym for adults and opening the school during the winter evenings for adult walking. Parker said he intends to make room for a weight-lifting facility at the school.
¦ Parker reported that due to having no middle school basketball coaches, and thus no teams, he has been speaking to the Bath County Recreation Department about the possibility of Highland sixth- and seventh-graders interested in playing basketball participating in Bath's program. "I have to do something for the kids that want to play," he said. Transportation issues may be an obstacle to overcome, he warned, and said he is hopeful coaches will come forward to keep the Highland programs going.
¦ The adult volleyball program will be discontinued.
¦ The commission voted unanimously to pay Kirk Billingsley a stipend for his work on Mountain Mama Bike Challenge.
The next meeting of the commission is Monday, Nov. 26, at the high school.
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