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Seabrook considers $3M–$5M pool replacement; short-term $800K fix would be temporary
Summary
City staff presented three replacement options for the municipal pool with planning-level costs of $3 million, $4 million and $5 million and said an $800,000 underground-plumbing retrofit would be a short-lived fix; FEMA and floodplain rules limit restroom solutions.
City staff told a town-hall audience that Seabrook’s municipal pool needs major repairs and presented three replacement options with different sizes and features and corresponding planning-level costs.
Brian Craig of public works described the three designs. Option A is a bare-minimum 25-yard, six-lane lap pool estimated at about $3,000,000; Option B adds a children’s shallow beach entry and play features and is estimated at about $4,000,000; Option C is a larger version of Option B and was estimated at about $5,000,000. Craig said the existing pool no longer meets code and that a prior assessment identified significant underground piping and other failures.
Staff also described a lower-cost stopgap: an assessment referenced an approximately $800,000 pipe-retrofit that would bring piping up to code but would not replace other structural or building deficiencies. Staff said the retrofitted system might be expected to last only about five to seven years before more extensive replacement would be needed.
A Seabrook Stingrays board member, Cindy Perkins, asked about the pool timeline and noted the swim team’s need for a local facility. Craig said build time for a new design would be about 36 to 40 weeks once final design and approvals are secured. The city indicated the pool bond (if placed on the ballot) would be part of a May election separate from other bond measures the council might consider; the presentation tied pool timing to the same May election window staff described for capital projects.
Finance Director Mike Gibbs presented the per-household tax impact scenarios used for all proposed capital items: on a $300,000 home with a 20% homestead exemption, a $15,000,000 bond was estimated to increase taxes by roughly $97 annually while a $3,000,000 scenario would be roughly $33.83 annually. Staff made a spreadsheet available and offered to run personalized tax-impact numbers for residents at an information table.
Floodplain and FEMA constraints also affect the pool: staff and the city’s floodplain representative said recent FEMA guidance and the city’s participation in the National Flood Insurance Program and Community Rating System limit the ability to construct commercial restrooms below base flood elevation (BFE) in V-zones; the city said it had obtained FEMA interpretation that commercial restrooms below BFE are not permitted at the pool site and that granting local variances could jeopardize community flood-insurance discounts. "By granting variances the NFIP can ... come back and actually downgrade our enforcement and increase everyone's flood insurance rate," a floodplain staff member said.
No formal council decisions were made at the town hall. Staff invited residents to provide written and electronic feedback and to meet staff at information tables for site plans, cost details and schedule information.
