Toccoa Accepts Bids for New Community Pool

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa

A new Doyle Street Pool should be ready in Toccoa by later this summer.

Monday, city commissioners unanimously approved bids for both the construction of the pool itself and the construction of the accompanying pool building.   Sunbelt Pools of Atlanta will build the pool at a bid price of $460,000.

“We had no bids when we initially put that project out (the pool), but we have since talked to several contractors and have been able to negotiate that price with Sunbelt,” said Morse.

Meanwhile, Phillips Brothers of Hartwell will build the pool building at a bid price of $437,000.

“We had two bids and they (Phillips) were the low bidder,” said Morse.

Previously, Sunbelt Pools has built pools in numerous Atlanta hotels, along with a pool for the new Emmanuel College athletic facility, and pools at other locations throughout the Southeast.

In addition, city officials said that the goal is to utilize as many local vendors as possible in construction.

Toccoa Mayor Gail Fry said she feels very good about what the city approved Monday.

“We have met with the contractors over and over,” said Fry. “We are ready to go. We feel very confident about the pool builder and the bathhouse (pool building) builder. They are bonded. We have gotten lots of recommendations from them from different areas and other projects they have completed. We feel confident about it. We are excited for our community. It will be great for our kids.”

Toccoa will build the new Doyle Street Pool on the same site as the previous pool and within the old pool’s footprint.

The shallow end of the pool will be an activity pool with water features for children and the deep end will be built to a depth of five feet instead of 10 feet and will be used for lap swimming and could be used for competitive swimming.

The shallow end will also be zero-entry for handicap accessibility.  Fry said she is excited about what the new pool will offer.

“It is going to be state of the art,” said Fry.

Morse said the companies should be ready to start construction within the next couple of weeks.  He said the city wants to open the pool this summer and possibly, if all goes well, have it ready to go around the Fourth of July.

Toccoa will use SPLOST VI money to pay for the construction of the pool and will forward fund it with a line of credit, using the SPLOST funds to repay that line of credit.