The Orange Natatorium will be open this summer after being closed last year. The Orange City Council on Tuesday will approve a contract with Community Christian School to use the pool.
In 2015, the city did not open the natatorium. At the time, City Manager Shawn Oubre said the city needed at least five certified lifeguards to operate and not enough qualified people applied. He said the city had too much legal liability to operate the pool without lifeguards.
In 2013, the city had to close the natatorium in early August because the lifeguards were going back to college.
According to the council agenda, Community Christian School will pay the city $20 an hour base for the pool plus $1 per person per session.
The council will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the council chamber next to the Orange Public Library. The city’s Economic Development Corporation board of directors will meet at 8:30 a.m. Three of the city council members sit on the seven-member corporation board.
Also on the agenda is a proposal to allow day care centers to operate in a Commercial Special zoning district.
Planning Director Kelvin Knauf in a memo to Oubre said the Orange Church of God wants to operate a day care center at the church, 1907 16th Street. Knauf said the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend the change.
Architect Rob Clark, who is designing the restoration of the old train depot, will give a presentation to the council on the project. The non-profit group Friends of the Orange Depot held a ground-breaking ceremony in April to being the project at the century-old Southern Pacific station on Green Avenue.
The Economic Development Corporation board will hear a presentation from John Moseley of Griffith, Moseley, Johnson and Associates of Port Arthur. Moseley will give an update on the strategic planning efforts related to economic development.
The economic development board and the city council in 2015 voted to withdraw the city’s contribution to the Orange County Economic Development Corporation and hire the outside consulting firm. The contract with the firm is for $200 an hour plus reimbursement for expenses of any travel outside a 60-mile radius.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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