HANCEVILLE — As it has in years past, the outdoor swimming pool at Hanceville’s C.W. Day Park is set to open for summer on Memorial Day weekend. But, beset by high maintenance costs and faced with some tough financial decisions about how to keep the aging public amenity in operating shape, city leaders are questioning how long Hanceville can afford to keep taking the annual plunge.

At its regular meeting Thursday, Feb. 22, members of the Hanceville City Council expressed a strong desire to seek new ways of assuring that the pool can remain open in the future, even as the facility’s perennial high cost continues to exert strain on the city’s finances.

Though the council has previously resolved to keep the pool operating when the topic has come up in prior years, the cost is indeed persistently high: Mayor Jimmy Sawyer said the pool represented a $65,000 loss for the city in 2023, and a $75,000 loss in 2022.

“This has been something we’ve struggled with over the last few years, as far as keeping open the city pool. It has come to a point where it is really a cost burden on the city,” said Sawyer, while voicing the council’s consensus agreement that some measure of financial loss is acceptable for such a unique and well-used parks and recreation amenity.

Weighing the degree of that acceptable loss against the council’s obligation to spend public funds responsibly will fuel its eventual decision on whether to permanently close the pool, or else establish a new operating plan that doesn’t put such a disproportionate claim on the city’s resources.

“We’ve got to be fiscally responsible,” said council member Kim Brown, while colleague John Stam hoped that a few weeks of research might reveal a better option than simply closing the pool for good.

“I think we all are struggling,” he said. “I think it’s great to have [the pool] … but when you look at how much [money] we’re losing. … I don’t know. That’s a big nut to crack with our budget.”

The council took no action on the pool, tabling the topic until its March 14 meeting while resolving in the meantime to reach out to local legislators, research potential grant funding and reexamine the facility’s current business model to come up with a more optimistic operating plan that assures the pool’s long-term viability.

The pool is one of only a handful of water-themed public recreational facilities in Cullman County, said council member Patty Dean-Tucker, agreeing with the rest of the council (and several residents in attendance who spoke in support of keeping the pool open) that no city leader wishes to see it closed.

“We have children in our area who don’t do sports,” she said, “and this is something that they can afford to do.”

In other business at its regular meeting, the council:

• Held a formal oath of office ceremony and subsequent informal reception for new council member Kenneth Cornelius, whom the council appointed at its last regular meeting to fill the Place 5 council seat left vacant by former council member and new Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer. The reception also celebrated Sawyer’s new role as mayor, as well as Brown’s new role as mayor pro-tem — a council-appointed position previously held by Sawyer.
• Reviewed the recently returned result of the city’s financial audit for the 2022 fiscal year, with Sawyer noting that the audit’s independent accounting review found “no missing funds” while observing that “all monies have been accounted for,” and that the audit elicited only “a few minor procedural recommendations.”
• Approved Sawyer’s appointment of Tara Kaldwell to a three-year term of service on the board of the Hanceville Housing Authority.
• Approved the council appointment of Paul Glenon to a three-year term of service with the Hanceville Zoning Board of Adjustments.
• Tabled until its March 14 meeting a measure soliciting council participation in the upcoming annual convention of the Alabama League of Municipalities, which will take place from May 15-18 in Huntsville. The council has until April
• 30 to return registration and name its ALM voting delegation ahead of the event.
• Approved the minutes of the council’s Feb. 8 regular meeting.
• The council’s next regular meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on March 14 in the council meeting room at Hanceville City Hall. A 5 p.m. public work session will precede the meeting at the same location.