The Centralia City Council and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will host a joint workshop at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, in the city council’s chambers to discuss design options for an upcoming ballot measure that could decide the fate of the Veterans Memorial Pearl Street Pool.
The chambers are located in Centralia City Hall at 118 W. Maple St. in downtown Centralia, and the public is invited to attend.
Councilors and city employees will propose details of possible renovation or replacement options for the outdoor pool.
The discussion was called for at the council’s last regular meeting in January after the council decided to create the ballot initiative in a 4-3 vote in early December.
For more than a decade, the Veterans Memorial Pearl Street Pool has remained closed due to maintenance issues and budget constraints. During that time, the local Save The Outdoor Pool (STOP) group was formed in an effort to reopen the pool.
Originally built in the 1950s as a war memorial, the pool was owned and operated by the city until the early 1980s when it was first closed. In 1984, it was reopened due to the efforts of Friends in Need, a local nonprofit that operated the pool until 2008 when the city resumed ownership.
It closed again shortly after that in 2011. The STOP group was created following the 2011 closure and has been trying to get the pool reopened ever since then.
The Veterans Memorial Pearl Street Pool is located one block north of Centralia City Hall on Pearl Street.
