Winamac Park Board to Consider Funding Agreement for Pool Project

Rendering of rebuilt Winamac pool.
Rendering of rebuilt Winamac pool.

The Winamac Park Board will meet in special session this evening to consider an agreement that would allow the board to take control of the town’s swimming pool rebuilding project. A committee of volunteers has been raising money for the project over the past several months, with the donations going into a fund at the Community Foundation of Pulaski County.

But now that Winamac has a park board that will able to oversee the pool on behalf of the town, an agreement must be reached with the Community Foundation in order for the board to officially take over the project’s non-permanent fund. Park board members were presented with a draft of that agreement at their previous meeting and will decide whether to approve it this evening. If approved by the park board, the agreement will then go to the Community Foundation’s Board of Directors for final approval next week.

Tonight’s Winamac Park Board meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office in the Winamac Town Hall.

Meanwhile, the Winamac Town Council is having to backtrack a bit, in order to arrange town funding for the pool project. The town pledged $150,000, but decided to split it up between this year and next year. Last month, the council voted to transfer $75,000 from the town’s Economic Development Income Tax Fund into its General Fund.

On Monday, though, a resolution was presented on first reading that will basically reverse that decision. After speaking with officials from the Department of Local Government Finance and the State Board of Accounts, Winamac Clerk-Treasurer Melanie Berger decided it would be easier and cleaner to simply start over and donate the entire amount next year.