MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake School Board members voted 3-2 to replace the existing cover on the high school swimming pool with a cinder block building.

The vote came at the regular meeting of the Moses Lake School Board Thursday, which attracted seven speakers in favor of replacing the cover and a letter from swimming coach Tony St. Onge. Board members have been discussing what to do about the pool since last fall.

The pool cover is at the end of its projected life, and the ventilation system is in poor repair. District officials presented six options to the board, ranging from getting a new cover to building the cinderblock building.

The cinderblock building is the most expensive option, with a projected total cost of $2.6 million. But the project is eligible for state construction funds, projected at $1.6 million, said Mark Johnson, the district's executive director of business and operations. The district's share would be $954,951, Johnson said.

All speakers at the board meeting supported fixing the pool somehow. St. Onge said the pool has many users, from senior swim clubs to emergency service organizations. Howard Skaug, of Moses Lake, said he understood the board had a lot of needs to juggle, but that the pool was a relatively small expense.

Board chair Kevin Donovan said board members knew the pool was in need of repair. "Something has to be done," he said. The board favored a permanent structure, he said, but there were different opinions on timing.

The board could defer action until June without affecting the construction timetable, he said. Currently district officials are gathering community suggestions on ways to address overcrowding at the middle schools and high school, with the board making a decision in April. Donovan said he favored waiting until overcrowding was addressed before making a decision on the pool.

Board member Vicki Groff asked Johnson if he was confident the state matching money still would be available. Johnson said he was more optimistic about the state match being available in 2013-14 than two or three years from now.

Board member Connie Opheikens said she was not comfortable with spending almost a million dollars while the overcrowding decision was still on the table. But board member Allan Burritt said the subject has been discussed for months and the board needed to make a decision.

Board member Lew Mason said the board has agreed the pool needs to be fixed permanently. The money is available now and a decision should be made now, Mason said. Mason, Burritt and Groff voted in favor of moving ahead, while Donovan and Opheikens voted no.

The vote was contingent on the availability of state construction funding, Donovan said. If the estimated state match changes, the board will review the proposal, he said.

Coming up with a design and all the necessary applications should take about four and a half months, according to a timetable prepared by NAC, the district's architectural firm. Construction would begin after the end of the 2014 boys swimming season, in early February. The pool would reopen by September 2014.