Plan to spend $301,000 on a new swimming pool water slide is approved 5-2

The Decorah City Council has approved a bid of $301,000 to install a new water slide at the Decorah Swimming Pool.

The bid is the second of three options considered for the water slide and is $40,000 more expensive than the base option.  But Decorah Parks Board members said the 15-foot high slide with a 99-foot run that would have been built under the first option was 33 feet shorter than the water slide that had been removed from the pool last spring.

Decorah Park-Rec Director Andy Nimrod says there is enough money in his department's budget to cover the additional $40,000--especially since an anonymous donor came in to City Hall Monday to write a $10,000 check for the project.

The more expensive option passed on a 5-2 vote, with Bill Wagner and Tade Kerndt voting against the second option in favor of the first option.

Construction of the water slide will begin next spring, with completion planned by the time the swimming pool opens.