New Aquatic Facility To Be Delayed 3-5 Years, Parks & Rec Says

Sedalia Parks & Rec issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon regarding the proposed aquatic facility to be built on the east side of Sedalia.

The decision has been made to delay the project from three to five years, according to Sedalia Parks & Rec Director Amy Epple:

"Community Members,

Sedalia Parks & Recreation finds it necessary to delay construction of the Aquatic facility for 3 to 5 years, as the current project budget does not give our community the facility size and amenities that we need for our growing community. With an 8 million dollar budget, the Aquatic Facility would be smaller than Liberty Pool.

If we decided to push the budget and build the facility that we require now, we would be doing a disservice to our community as that would prevent us from doing any further large special projects, maintenance, and amenities that need our attention across the entire park system. Many of those projects are coming in higher than we have anticipated.

In order for us to keep our parks looking nice, take care of what needs to be completed over the next several years, and keep our budget in the black we know this is the right decision. Liberty Pool will continue to stay open until the New Aquatic Facility is open.

Memory Lanes is still on schedule to move forward with the project going out to bid shortly with ground breaking in early Fall this year and opening late Fall of 2026.
Why the bowling alley and not the Aquatic Facility? Well, the bowling alley is being donated by Sue Heckart and will generate revenue, whereas, to cover expenses while the new aquatic facility will not make money, but is a required offering to our residents. So going forward with an undersized aquatic facility doesn’t help us, it will only make things tighter and put us in a bad spot if something major would need to be repaired.

Please understand this is not a fun decision to make but it honestly is an easy one to make. It is the responsibility of the Park Board and staff of SPR to do what is best for our Parks and the Community we serve. Over the next several years we will take care of major maintenance projects - Liberty Pond a half-million dollar project, one that 8 years ago was estimated at 175,000, parking lots and trails in all parks, field lights being replaced with new LED lights, a new playground at Liberty Park, a new boiler at Convention Hall, increased Security throughout our parks, Clover Dell septic lagoons repaired, and many more.

We know the community will be disappointed in this decision but we hope you understand this is the right thing to do. Once we complete these major projects we will have more money to move forward with a larger budget to comfortably build the facility our community rightfully needs and wants.

We have attached 3 pictures, the first being of Liberty Pool-the second what we can build with our $8 million dollar budget, and the third what we can build if we wait a few years.

This approach will increase our savings for the pool and take care of things that need to be done without stretching ourselves so thin that we can’t provide the public what they need and deserve now and in the future. We are committed to providing you with responsible financial stewardship and quality parks and programming!"

-- Amy Epple, Sedalia Parks and Recreation director