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Why does the pool rehab cost $2.3 million?

A conversation with City Administrator Rose Beverly on why the City contracted with the pool repair company for that amount

Whitney McKnight

20 Dec 2024 — 4 min read

Photo by Lidia Nikole on Unsplash

Dear Bereans,

This is an experiment, but one I think will grow into a well-loved feature of The Edge. Having a monthly feature that focuses on different aspects of municipal government has been an idea of mine from the start. I figured I would start it as a new feature in the new year.

But I was determined to do it sooner than later after I published a story about the community pool being rehabbed for $2.3 million, and found that some people in the community questioned whether that was too much money.

Maybe so, maybe not. There is only one way to know, and that’s to ask questions. Why did the City think this was a fair bid? What were the criteria and circumstances considered?

Thus Meet Your Municipality is born! I imagine it will be more flashy in time, but this is what I can do for now.

Conversation with city administrator

To understand why the cost of rehabbing the pool is what it is, I requested documents from the City, and had a sit down with the person who oversaw the process of bidding the job and choosing the contractor — City Administrator Rose Beverly. Beverly will be leaving her position in January, but was happy to share with Bereans how she oversaw the process and why she thinks (hopes!) you will be happy with the results.

I tried to ask the questions you might ask if you were sitting there in the room with us. Did I miss one? Please comment below, or send me a message:

In the meantime, here is my conversation with Beverly. The audio is fine enough but does not have the quality of production values that a really good podcast has. However, as a student and proponent of backpack journalism, sometimes you just go with what you have.

In this interview, we touch upon:

The reason the rehab of the pool was chosen as an investment above other options
How the procurement process works
Why it was so difficult to find contractors for the project
Why costs are what they are
How you can order and receive copies of any City records you wish to see
Other information about how the budget process works

Interview with Rose Beverly, recorded in her office, on Dec. 11, 2024:

Also, even though the pool is expected to re-open in time for Memorial Day, a heads up that the pool will be closed for about two weeks in July 2025 for some additional final touches. See the documents below!

A teachable moment

Even though in my career I have been a municipal and federal reporter, I am always learning how to work with the respective government I am covering. In this case, when I ordered the fully executed contract and the bid, I thought I would also be getting the actual numbers.

Surprise! No, that didn’t happen. I needed to specify that I wanted to procure a copy of the bid sent to the City by the contractor who got the job (there was only one bid submitted) and that I wanted to see how much they proposed each aspect of the job would cost. Dang.

Just a tip for you to remember if you ever request documents from the City: be as specific as possible!

Here’s where you can order any document publicly available in the City of Berea.

A screen shot below shows you what the page looks like and the drop down menu where you click to get to the page:

Documents now, and to come

In any case, since I had slated today for publishing this information, when I receive the actual costs, I will post it here and let everyone know! But, this is still a worthwhile post because of the conversation with Beverly, who explains the process and the reasons for the costs.

These documents begin with the call for bids: