WALLACE — The city of Wallace is one step closer to having its swimming pool back up and open for business.

On Wednesday evening, the Wallace City Council accepted a bid from contractor S&L Underground to repair the pool.

For the city, getting to this point hasn’t been easy.

When the pool mysteriously began losing water during the early part of summer 2018, officials began attempting to figure out what the cause was.

The problem was, a real solid reason never materialized other than there was an undetectable leak somewhere in the pool that allowed water to escape without there being any evidence to figure out where the leak was.

The city then spent nearly $30,000 with aquatic engineering firm Terracon, who told the city that the cost to redesign and repair should be in the ballpark of $450,000.

After putting the project out for bid multiple times and in turn receiving and rejecting bids that were all significantly higher than the estimated price from Terracon, the city finally accepted S&L’s bid of $997,750.00.

Councilwoman Heather Branstetter has been at the forefront of the fundraising efforts to ensure that the project could be paid for and it appears that they have the necessary money.

“We appear to have secured the funding,” Branstetter said. “With one quarter coming from the Department of Commerce grant and the remaining coming from a combination of generous donations and city money designated to the pool.”

The grant will be administered by the Panhandle Area Council, who required the city to complete an income survey that showed that the city’s households are at least 51% low-to-moderate income (LMI) in order to qualify for the grant.

The Wallace City Council voted in favor of pursuing the grant during a special session in early July 2020, that also included a public forum that was held in September of that year.

Branstetter wanted to extend some appreciation to Wallace City Clerk Kristina Larson, who was invaluable to the process of securing the funds.

“Our city clerk went above and beyond during the whole pool fundraising time,” Branstetter said. “I think Kristina’s work throughout this process made a huge difference in getting the money needed to accept the bid.”

Larson herself also credited councilman Dean Cooper for being a driving force in gathering donations.

No exact date for the project has been set, but the News-Press will continue to follow the story as the project begins and progresses.