Marengo city pool on track to open summer 2024

MARENGO — After receiving overwhelming community support and adamant fundraising efforts, the Marengo city pool is on track to open in the summer of 2024.

After a special election on Sept. 18, Marengo City Public Measure D was approved, permitting the issuance of $3.8 million in debt for a new pool. More than 70 percent of voters supported the project.

Karla Marck, the Marengo City Administrator, said the pool design still is in process and is set to go to bid within the next 30 to 60 days. This timeline sets bidding to happen in late April or May, aligning with the summer construction season.

The pool will be built between city hall and Iowa Valley Elementary School and will include a splash pad, pool, diving board, waterslide and concessions.

Marck said the pool has been a massive community effort, with residents and council participants working in tandem to progress the project.

Barbara McMeen is a member of the community team dubbed the ‘Pool Pals’ that fronts fundraising efforts and community engagement. McMeen has been an advocate for the reopening of the Marengo pool, and her husband is on the official city pool committee.

McMeen said the pool would curb safety issues in the Marengo community, giving kids who choose to swim in the river a safer alternative. She also said the pool offers a healthy recreational activity and would build camaraderie within the community.

“We're all on our media too much of the time,” McMeen said. “Our phones and screen time is way too much.”

From sharing renderings of the pool to community members to holding an abundance of fundraisers, the Pool Pals have dedicated a great deal of time and energy to the project.

McMeen said the Pool Pals have sold signs to community members, sold food during other events, painted the local high school’s symbol on driveways, and done much more to raise funds for the pool.

“Our fundraisers probably aren't going to make the kind of money that we would need to do this pool, but it has become such a community spirited and community supported project that I think that everybody feels like it's going to be our pool,” McMeen said.

The pool’s largest donors come from Compass Memorial Healthcare, which has agreed to donate a total of $250,000 over a span of five years, and an anonymous donor who has donated $250,000 and has agreed to match community donations up to an additional $250,000.

Marengo city Mayor Adam Rabe said the Pool Pals have been instrumental in the process of reopening the Marengo pool. Rabe said the large donation from Compass Memorial Healthcare will be put toward operating costs so the pool can be maintained within the first several years of its opening.

“Some of our local businesses, especially our local hospital, is trying to attract health care providers, physicians, nurses, you know, everyone that works in the hospital,” Rabe said. “It's important to them that we have amenities to attract people.”

Outside of the pool, Rabe said Marengo has seen an explosion of activity in the past few months. With new local businesses on the rise and renovations being made to buildings in the downtown area, Rabe said he’s excited to see Marengo continue to grow.

“We're getting a lot of energy going right now with the pool and stuff going on downtown,” Rabe said.