An undated photo from the Lyon County Historical Society showed the Marshall Aquatic Center after its current bathhouse was built. The age and condition of the current facilities was one reason construction of a new Aquatic Center was proposed.

MARSHALL — Going back through the history of the Marshall Aquatic Center, there have been efforts to maintain and renovate the facilities. However, in recent years the city was also faced with the question of when normal maintenance might not be enough anymore.

“You want to keep it going, keep it going, but you know that it can’t keep going forever,” Marshall Parks and Recreation Superintendent Preston Stensrud said this week.

The condition of the current Aquatic Center – with issues ranging from pool leaks to a lack of accessibility – was one of the reasons city staff and Marshall City Council members have been looking at proposals for construction of a new facility over the past few years. On November 7, Marshall residents will vote on whether to extend the city’s local sales tax to fund the construction of a new aquatic center.

The Independent looked at Marshall city records and spoke with city staff to learn more about how the Aquatic Center got to its present condition.

Maintaining and updating Marshall’s pool and bathhouse is a topic that has come up periodically throughout the facility’s history. Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson said there were a few different times when the city has tried to update the pool. In some cases, bigger projects didn’t pass and the city was able to pass smaller fixes instead.

“You do what you need to get by,” she said. “We’re trying to do it with the pool, although I will say if you look at past history, they tried. They tried to update it.”

The original city pool was built in the 1930s, along with a two-story bathhouse, in what is now Legion Field Park. By the mid 1960s, the city was looking at improving the facility. A 1965 report from pool manager Jerry T. Reese said the bathhouse was “badly in need of repair,” with part of the roof collapsed into a storage room.

In 1968, Marshall held a referendum for a $225,000 pool construction project, which failed with voters. The following year, the city health board recommended that the pool be closed due to factors like problems with the pool’s filter and circulation systems, and inadequate toilets.

However, the pool did go on to receive updates with the help of bonds, and kept operating over the years. The Aquatic Center’s current bathhouse and diving bell were built in the 1970s, Stensrud said. Updates to the pool deck and gutter system were added in the 1980s, and the center’s water slide was built in the 1990s.

The last major updates to the Aquatic Center were made more than 10 years ago, city staff said.

“I believe we had a push to do like a complete renovation project, probably right around 2004. And then it never progressed,” Stensrud said. “Since we didn’t do the renovation, we needed to do some updates, which included the (pool) floor.”

In Marshall City Council minutes from April 2008, council members considered bid packages for pool renovations. In the minutes, then-Community Services Director Harry Weilage said the main concern was replacing the 40-year-old pool floor. Bid alternates for the proposal included adding a Diamond Brite pool finish, construction of a new maintenance and pump building, and building additional amenities like a splash pad and a flume slide. The total of the low bidder for the proposal came to $1.1 million, not including contingencies and other costs.

However, council minutes showed that Marshall City Council members disagreed on the cost of the renovation project, and what portions of the bid package should be awarded. Council member Dan Ritter moved to award the $200,000 base bid of the renovation package, and the $60,000 alternate for the Diamond Brite finish. Council minutes said council member Larry Doom and Mayor Bob Byrnes indicated they were in favor of also awarding the bid alternate to build a new maintenance and pump building and splash pad.

In the end, the motion to award the just the base bid and pool finish portions of the package passed 4-2. In the process of completing the renovations, it was also found that the main drain in the diving well also needed to be replaced. The cast-iron drain had serious problems with scale deposits, city records said.

Problems with the age and condition of the Aquatic Center facilities haven’t gone away since 2008, Stensrud said this week. Stensrud said the pool surfacing that was added in 2008 has reached the end of its lifespan.

“And then we have the freeze-thaw conditions, that nothing really holds up great to when you get that hydraulic pressure and the freeze-thaw pushing,” he said. Every spring, city workers patch and caulk the pool, as well as replacing loose tiles.

Even with annual maintenance work, the Aquatic Center pool loses water. A 2019 report by 292 Design Group found “significant cracking and structural deterioration” in the joints of the pool walls and around the gutters. The pool was losing around 12,000 to 15,000 gallons of water per day.

The report also found that the center’s mechanical and electrical systems were in need of repair, and plumbing lines were failing.

In addition to leaks, there were also questions about the stability of the soil underneath the Aquatic Center, Stensrud said. This fall, city staff had to stabilize an area under the pool deck. “The gravel had sunk inches. I could put my arm into there,” Stensrud said. City staff pumped concrete into the area to help fill the empty space. “It’s a repair that’ll kind of get us by for now,” he said.

Building codes and accessibility requirements have also changed since the pool was built. Making the Aquatic Center compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act would affect both the pool and bathhouse areas, Stensrud said.

“And we still wouldn’t have the amenities or attractions that families are interested in today,” he said.

After 292 Design’s report on the Aquatic Center, the Marshall council took steps toward a referendum on a new city pool. In 2022, council members unanimously voted in support of extending Marshall’s local sales tax for 20 years to fund an aquatic center and indoor recreation facility. The vote was the first step needed to hold a referendum, but the effort was derailed when the Minnesota Legislature ended its 2022 session without passing a bonding bill or omnibus tax bill.

In January, the council again voted unanimously in favor of extending the sales tax, and this time they got the needed approval from the Legislature to hold public vote on Nov. 7.