Heating up

The water park will be getting heated.

The timeline for the heater to be installed is still being determined.

Portland Park Board on Tuesday agreed to accept a gift of a heater for Portland Water Park from a group led by Bev Arnold and Rob Weaver.

Arnold presented the idea of installing a heater for the pool at the water park to the park board in December, saying she believed she could get donors to cover the cost. The board revisited the issue last month, reviewing options from JRT Pools and SPEAR Corporation that came in at costs of $47,724 and $67,808, respectively.

Park board members at that time agreed to research the issue further and asked street and parks department superintendent Matt Shauver and parks manager Ronnie Reynolds to gather information. Those details were presented Tuesday, indicating that average monthly costs to heat pools in St. Henry, Ohio, and Coldwater, Ohio, came in at about $1,300. Meanwhile, Celina, Ohio, removed its heater in 2017. Park board president Brian Ison added that most pools in Indianapolis are not heated. Park board member John McFarland added that he researched facilities in Angola and Wabash that use their heaters for a couple of weeks to get the water up to temperature but then shut them down for the remainder of the year.

Arnold said she also talked to representatives from Berne Pool, which had a total bill of $5,026 in 2024 for heating.

Everyone in the discussion agreed that it’s difficult to find “apples-to-apples” comparisons on costs because of the various depths, shapes and sizes of pools. Weaver noted that he had offered to raise the funds to account for the additional heating costs this year.

Brian Ison, the park board president, noted that the water park’s utilities budget is $20,000 and last year went over that amount by about $5,000. He noted that clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips told him the water park budget can’t be changed for 2024, but park board member Michael Brewster pointed out that the board could request an additional appropriation from city council.

McFarland said he researched pools in the Indianapolis area. Most are not heated, he said, but those facilities also had frequent complaints about being closed because of cool temperatures. 

“When it’s sitting there closed, it’s not benefitting anyone,” said park board member Michael Brewster.

There was also a discussion about space for the equipment, with Shauver saying it would fit in the water park’s pump house.

Park board members Shauna Runkle, Jennifer Weitzel, McFarland and Brewster unanimously approved accepting the gift of the pool heater from the group led by Arnold and Weaver. They were in support of purchasing the more expensive heater from SPEAR because it has a projected lifespan of seven to 10 years as compared to three to five for the unit from JRT.

The timeline for the project will be dependent on availability of the equipment in conjunction with preparing the water park to open for the 2024 season. Shauver said he planned to call Wednesday morning to check on the availability of a heater from SPEAR and how long it would take to be delivered. He agreed to share that information immediately with the park board, Arnold and Weaver.

Also Tuesday, the board approved new mulch for several parks, upgrades to the gazebo at Hudson Family Park and a new slide for Milton Miller Park.

Shauver explained that mulch around the playground equipment at several parks was last purchased in 2018. He presented a quote of $9,400 for four semi loads from Tawa Mulch and Landscape of Findlay, Ohio.

He also noted a Milton Miller Park slide that was cracked and needs to be replaced at a cost of $2,638.97 and a proposed project to wrap Hudson Family Park gazebo posts with metal. (The cost for the materials for the gazebo comes in at $1,235.85, with the street and parks department to handle the work.)

The board approved all three projects, with the mulch and slide to be paid out of the park board’s repairs and maintenance budget and the gazebo materials from its capital projects budget.