Battle over Memorial Pool site continues in La Crosse

Neighborhoods surrounding site bring multiple options to board for remodel/replace of pool.

It’s January and the discussion about the fate of Memorial Pool continues. 

A new report on replacing or remodeling the 80-year-old pool site is being sent to the La Crosse city council.

The city park board voted Thursday night to refer the report from Michigan’s Isaac Sports Group, which offers four choices for either remodeling or replacing Memorial Pool.

Some of the proposals call for a smaller pool than the existing one, meaning the cost could be as low as $3 million – though that option’s pool would be 40 percent smaller than the original Memorial Pool. 

La Crosse park director Steve Carlyon is also a little worried about the report’s multiple options. What he wants is for Grandview-Emerson neighborhood members to settle on one.

“It could be a $2.5-million project, it could be a $12-million project,” Carlyon told the board. “It could be anywhere in between. And the council needs to know, that number that they’re looking at is a real number.”

Carlyon also offered some requirements he’d like to see from the pool in that it should be heated and have enough room for swimming laps.