The Great Bend City Council voted Monday to hire JEO Consulting Group to come up with conceptual designs for the Wetlands Waterpark, leading to a major renovation that could start in August of 2026. Brad Shores, office manager at Wichita-based JEO, said the City’s plan poses an “aggressive but achievable” timeline.
It appears that the original pool, built in 1936, needs to be demolished and something new built in its place, while the existing bathhouse can stay. While noting he’s not the person in charge of this project, that’s how Shores answered a question from councilman Cory Urban about some wording in the $30,000 contract approved Monday.
“I think what that’s saying is the structure of your bathhouse is really good, but we’re going to take a deeper dive at the mechanical stuff,” Shores said. “The assumption is the pool is going, bathhouse is staying, or maybe we need to tweak some mechanics in the bathhouse.”
JEO, the City’s on-call engineering firm, will complete a facility assessment. The firm will work with a pool committee to come up with three possible concept designs with cost estimates.
Given the pool’s age and condition, it is time to plan for its replacement, City Administrator Logan Burns said. The plan has been to keep the pool operational through the 2026 season and start demolition and construction when it closes in August 2026. Under the Great Bend Quality of Life sales tax, the city has earmarked funding to begin bond payments in 2027, supporting a project with an estimated budget of $6 million.
Mayor Cody Schmidt will appoint the pool committee. Burns said those who have expressed a desire to be on the committee include himself and the mayor, council members Urban and Tina Mingenback, Public Lands Director Scott Keeler, Aquatics Director Megan Hammeke with the Great Bend Recreation Commission and First Kansas Bank President Paul Snapp.
Shores said the process will include working with the pool committee to help it decide: “What is that pool going to look like? ... What features does it have? How big is it? What are the ballpark costs?”
He said his firm can look at grants the city might apply for but warned the grants may not fit the timeline.
“There’s no guarantee you’ll get grants. We’ll be educating and working with the pool committee through that entire process,” he said.
Now that the contract has been approved, JEO has three concepts to work through, Shores said.
“I don’t want to give you three at once,” he said. They will start with what he called a “light concept” or “rough draft” to start the conversation. That will be followed by “a big concept, something very different, so you have two to compare with right out the gate.”
He said JEO will work with the pool committee to refine the options. “So it’s not three (concepts) out of the gate, it’s three through a process,” he said. There are a number of steps to work through, “but the goal of this contract is to kind of land on a final concept.”
Last October, Amber Wyatt from JEO visited Great Bend to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the existing pool that resulted in a 66-page report on its condition and the condition of adjacent play features. Councilman Urban asked why further assessment is needed.
Shores said Wyatt’s report was based on one day at the pool with a lot of note-taking, but more needs to be done.
“So we’re going to formalize it, and then the key thing we’re going to do is start putting costs to repairs,” he said.
The motion to approve the contract with JEO passed 7-0. Councilman Gary Parr was absent.
