it’s nice out,” said Matt Schuenke, village
administrator. “A lot of the responses
we’ve gotten is that McFarland doesn’t
have that – and why don’t we have that?
Every time someone asks about that, we
don’t have an answer for them.”
They didn’t know how much it would
cost to build a pool or a splashpad. Or
how to operate such a facility. Or even
where to put it if they opted to install
one.
“The whole feasibility study was
conceived under the notion of helping
provide us with some very high-level
answers to questions that people have
to help us in future planning decisions,
should a project like this move forward,”
Schuenke said.
And that it did. Schuenke indicated
that Ayres’ study gave Village officials
reasonable, objective data that helped
them rationally decide on aquatic-
related next steps.
“The work Ayres and their team did
helped provide answers to some of
those questions so that now, if we
do want to pursue a pool, then this is
what we have to look for, and this is
how much money we have to raise,”
he said. “It’s not such an unknown. It’s
not such a scary thing anymore. We can
understand more objectively what our
targets are if we want to bring those
types of projects forward.”
For now, Village leaders continue
to evaluate their options and weigh
whether they want to build a pool into
their five-year capital improvement plan.
And they appreciate Ayres’ input and
guidance along the way.
“Sometimes more than half the battle
is trying to convey information to the
public so that they can understand and
buy into it – no matter what the project
is,” Schuenke said. “This is kind of a
tough project because why do we need
an aquatics facility in our community?
And Blake could rattle off 10 perfectly
acceptable reasons that people could
accept.”
“It’s a different issue than providing
clean drinking water to your home or
sanitary sewer service and garbage
pickup or police,” he continued. “It’s a
much different animal, and Blake was
very responsive and knowledgeable of
the issues surrounding that and did a
good job of interacting and conveying
that message to the public.”
Page 19 and 20 photos: Constructed in 2018,
SC Johnson Community Aquatic Center,
located in Racine, Wis., is another well-
designed pool project by Ayres Associates.
AyresAssociates.com
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