City concedes
on pool expenses
Agreement largely unchanged despite earlier rejection
Staff writer
Marion city council and school board members signed paperwork Monday night that preserves the terms of an original 2006 interlocal agreement except for a tweak to how operating expenses for Marion’s community swimming pool will be paid.
Mayor David Mayfield signed a revised agreement during Monday’s city council meeting and handed it to school board president Nick Kraus, who took it to the school board meeting for his signature, where it was unanimously approved.
The city had disputed invoices for pool expenses since November, and on Feb. 8 flatly refused to pay January invoices from the second half of 2020.
An Oct. 6 email to city council members that city administrator Roger Holter said mayor David Mayfield wanted to be kept confidential referred to payments made since 2005 as “an annual donation program.”
Mayfield had insisted that bond payments were expected to expire after 10 years and that the 2006 agreement needed to be reviewed.
Although city council members agreed during a contentious Feb. 22 meeting to meet with the school board to discuss the city’s disputes over payments for the pool, no public meeting took place.
Instead, Mayfield met Feb. 26 with school superintendent Aaron Homburg and Kraus to discuss minutes of the 2006 meeting when the interlocal agreement was approved. That meeting specified bond payments would be made through 2024.
After Mayfield met with school officials, lawyers for both sides worked on proposed agreements for future payments.
“I think it’s written now in a way that even I can understand it,” councilman Jerry Kline said after he read the revised agreement.
The revised agreement signed Monday has the city continuing to make $100,000 annual bond payments through 2024.
The first of two $50,000 payments for 2021 is to be made by March 23 and the second payment by July 15.
Thereafter, the city will make two $18,000 payments a year as its share of operating the pool. That amount is an average of operating expenses over the last several years.
The existing bill for $22,609.21, in dispute since November, is to be paid in full by March 23. After that, payments of $18,000 every six months will begin.
The city’s operational expense payments will end in July 2024.
Kraus said he is glad to have the dispute resolved at last.