Wellmark grant puts Keota pool project $150,000 from goal

With recent grants from the Riverboat and Wellmark Foundations, success is closer than ever in Keota’s push for its own pool and splash pad, with roughly $1.35 million of its $1.5 million goal in hand.

“For a town with a population of roughly 1,000 to take a group like Keota Pool advocates, and to go out and fundraise up to $1.35 million is incredible,” Keota City Council Member Mike Bender said. “The half a million dollar grant that we got from the Riverboat foundation, that was huge … we have a big opportunity to put ourselves on the map.”

A point of pride for project advocates is its refusal to raise taxes in the town along the border of Keokuk and Washington County.

“There is no tax impact, there are no taxes being raised whatsoever,” Bender said. “The pool advocates have raised this money on their own.”

With their fundraising efforts on the home stretch, Bender said advocates had exhausted most substantial grant opportunities, for the moment.

“I don’t think that there are any more grants right now that are outstanding,” he said. “I think there will be some that will be pursued later on … I think for right now, as far as grant money, we know what we’re getting.”

Whether the remaining money is raised or not, Bender said the fund already covered the projected costs of the pool itself, making the splash pad the only installation in question.

“The pool is going to happen regardless right now,” he said. “The funding is there, we’re in the first stages of trying to get things ready and organized, so it’s definitely going to happen.”

Assuming all goes well, that means the facility is on track to open in summer of 2023.

“The only thing that could delay anything would be contracting and weather, as far as I’m concerned,” Bender said. “The goal is to break ground ASAP. We have to have the soil tested, so on and so forth, and once we get that done and start getting bids out, that’s the next step.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com