City hires construction manager for aquatics center, will help determine where to build

Apr. 19—The city of Dalton has a construction manager for its planned aquatics center. It doesn't yet have a definite site for the $23 million facility.

City Council members voted 3-0 Monday to approve a construction management contract with the Reeves Young construction company of Sugar Hill. Council member Annalee Harlan was absent, and Mayor David Pennington typically votes only if there is a tie.

The company will receive $15,000 during the pre-construction phase of the work and 6.2% of the cost of the project for its work during construction.

Council members voted in February to amend the city's contract with Dalton's KRH Architects to design the aquatics center at the 36-acre James Brown Park at 904 Civic Drive and to increase the budget to $23 million from $20 million. The center was expected to be built on the northeast end of the campus at the corner of Avenue C and Mitchell Street. But on Monday, City Administrator Andrew Parker said one of Reeves Young's roles during the pre-construction phase will be to determine if the facility can be built at James Brown Park.

"We are still studying the site development costs associated with that property," he said. "There's a high water table. We are already looking at permanent de-watering equipment having to be installed around the foundation of the building if it goes there. We are looking at whether those costs will force us to evaluate other sites. That's part of the reason we are engaging this general contractor to lead us through the pre-construction phase, to allow us to make more informed decisions."

Parker said one alternative site if building at James Brown Park is ruled out could be the Dalton Convention Center.

"We have land that we lease there for parking that we might seek to acquire," he said. "It has a lot of advantages in terms of access to hotels and to the interstate. But the issue there is rock. We have to excavate down to 25 feet because of the pool. At the convention center, we worry about running into bedrock, and at James Brown, we worry about ground water."

Pennington said he isn't very concerned the city hasn't yet firmly identified a site for the aquatics center.

"We are taking our time," he said. "We need to make sure the site we do choose works for the next 35 or 40 years."

If the aquatics center is built near the convention center it would be on the gravel area used for overflow parking. Pennington said that would not leave too little parking.

"The only way we would not have enough parking is if we also get a hotel up there," he said.

When the convention center was built in 1991, plans called for a hotel to be built next to it. But during the past 30 years, local officials have not been able to land a hotel.

The late hotelier and developer John Q. Hammons signed a letter of intent with the convention center authority board in 2008 to build an Embassy Suites at the convention center, but Hammons withdrew from the deal later that year following the departure of then-convention center director Rick Tanner and the veto by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue of a bill that would have created tax credits for tourism-related projects such as the planned hotel.

The aquatics center is expected to have a 50-meter, competition-sized swimming pool as well as a 25-yard by 25-yard multipurpose pool that could be used for physical therapy. The city will keep the outdoor pool at the John Davis Recreation Center, which is in James Brown Park.

The aquatics facility is expected to include spectator seating for about 900 as well as a separate seating area with approximately 500 seats for swimmers. Council members have said the aquatics center will host swimming competitions for local schools. They also hope it will host regional USA Swimming events.

Plans call for the competition pool to have a Myrtha stainless steel pool liner, which is said to create a very "fast pool."

Council members had announced in March 2021 plans to build an aquatics center on land near Dalton Mall but could not reach an agreement with the owners of that property.