By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
Over the last couple of years, city leaders have been discussing and taking some steps toward building a new city pool since the current one is 45 years old and showing its age.
Preliminary plans had the new pool being built across from its current location on Washington Avenue at Stone Park where the baseball field is located.
However, due to the rising costs of construction, those plans have changed.
During a work session last week, the Oxford Board of Aldermen directed the Oxford Park Commission to move in the direction of completely rebuilding the pool at the current site.
“The estimates for building the pool at Stone Park were coming in way above what we projected,” said Mayor Robyn Tannehill.
Early designs showed that the city could build a bigger pool with new features like a slide and splash pad, for $1 million less than building a smaller pool at Stone Park.
The entire current pool would be removed and a new pool will be constructed, Tannehill said.
One issue with the current location has been a big hill behind the pool causing erosion issues for the pool foundation. Tannehill said the new pool project would include building a retaining wall on the property.
The Board voted last year to make a new city pool one of its top priority projects.
