The city of Littlefield has not given up hope on its vision for an aquatic center. The city raised approximately $213,000 of its $1.6 million dollar goal, according to Eric Turpen, mayor of Littlefield.
“The fact of the matter is there just hasn’t been enough people donating to get to any real amount of money,” Turpen said.
Turpen said people in Littlefield had the option to make donations via their water bills. The city had also unsuccessfully applied for grants.
Lance Broadhurst, a committee member for parks said the issue was addressed at a recent city council meeting.
“Just this last city council meeting, the council wanted the parks committee to kinda get back together and review the possibilities of the pool and kind of how thats going,” Broadhurst said.
The city said they still have plans to build the aquatic center on the lot it has purchased, and are looking into different ways to fund it.
“We may have the ability in about two years to have cash flow to be able to make bond payments or even in several years of saving some money up that could potentially pay cash for the pool,” Turpen said.
Before going forward with the bond, the city is seeking feedback from members of the community and will hold an election regarding the bond for the aquatic center.
“We have to sit back, everybody has to sit back and look at it with an open mind to say this is probably what’s best for the city of Littlefield,” Broadhurst said.