Woodland Park Council votes to build aquatic center near high school

Woodland Park City Council voted 6-1 on an agreement that finalizes the plan to build a new aquatic center near Woodland Park High School.

Members of the public as well as city council members discussed the decision for almost three hours before the vote.

Initially, city council members planned to build the aquatic center downtown off Highway 24. However, it was determined that roads and infrastructure would need to be built at that location and decided that it would not make economic sense to move forward with building on that site.

In the months to come, city council members discussed building the aquatic center on property owned by the school district. Council voted to finalize the agreement during Thursday’s meeting, thus finalizing the location of the center.

Before the vote, city council heard from supporters as well as critics of the plan.

“A project that should have brought all of us together has instead torn us apart,” said local businessman Cord Prettyman. “This is a sad day for Woodland Park and it was so unnecessary.”

Prettyman accused city council members of reaching an agreement behind closed doors during executive session and then deleting the recordings.

“You would think, when you go behind closed doors, to discuss things pertaining to $10.1 million in taxpayer money, you would think you would want to keep the tapes for public discussions,” said Prettyman in his address to council.”The public will never know if the law was violated or not. But even if it wasn’t, the spirit of the law was violated.”

City ClerkSuzanne Leclercq said there was no decision made in executive session and according to state statute, the city is allowed to destroy the recordings after 90 days.

“It’s a process we have been doing for years and it’s exactly what we did,” said Leclercq.

Leclercq said Prettyman did not request the recordings until recently and the tapes would have been destroyed in early November.

The plan is to start construction on the aquatic center this spring. The goal is to open the center by next winter.