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GREENSBORO — Ninety minutes before the end of their current terms in office on Tuesday — and retirement for four City Council members — the council will make a $17 million decision .

Council members are primed to kick off the construction of a swimming facility that supporters hope will be the envy of every sports-loving town on the Eastern Seaboard.

But they’ve got to decide whether they really want to build an aquatics center that will cost nearly more than voters approved last year.

It’s a decision that is making some council members uneasy.

“I am getting some pushback,” Councilman Zack Matheny said. “At what point do we lose sight of what a million dollars is?”

Council’s call

From its genesis, Greensboro’s would-be aquatics center was a project driven by the City Council.

In mid-2008 , City Council members were disappointed with the Parks and Recreation department’s recommendation to put a $20 million bond on the ballot to pay for a variety of park maintenance and upkeep projects.

How about a pool instead, Matheny and fellow council member Mike Barber asked.

A new city pool has long been a dream of the swim community. But residents dashed those hopes twice in bond referendums.

In July 2008, council members agreed to set aside $12 million in the $20 million park bond for a competitive pool, although the city staff had not had time to plan the design or scope of the project.

Council members made that decision with several warnings from Mitchell Johnson, who was city manager at the time. A regional competitive facility could cost as much as $20 million — and private support likely would be unable to fill the funding gap, he wrote to council members in a memo that summer.

“I am concerned that placing the proposed pool … in the bond package would create expectations which we would fail to meet with that level of funding,” Johnson wrote.

Months later — after voters approved the bond in November and the economy tanked — the predictions about the costs got a bit sunnier.

City staff estimated that a competitive pool — one that would be able to host a citywide swim meet — could be built for about $12.5 million.

A more impressive regional facility, built at the Greensboro Coliseum with amenities such as a diving well, warm-up pool and spectator seating, could cost $17.5 million , interim Parks and Recreation Director Anthony Wade told council members in May 2009.

Council members — excited about the idea of a pool that could draw youth and collegiate-level competition and, with it, tourism to High Point Road — chose the more expensive $17.5 million option.

Wade told the council members the city might shave 10 percent off that cost. Construction bids were coming back lower because of the recession.

Coliseum Director Matt Brown , who was subsequently appointed to lead the charge on the project, was more optimistic.

The city could get a $15 million pool for $12 million, he told council members.

An enthusiastic council, led by Barber and Robbie Perkins , pushed for an expedited construction process. The next few months were consumed by a rapid research, design and bidding process.

Looking back, Brown said this week , his earlier estimates did not reflect the reality of what it would cost to build a competitive facility with all the required elements.

“I was a little euphoric,” he said.

There was an expectation from some council members that an advisory committee of swim supporters might find additional ways to fund it, perhaps through nonprofit or corporate partnerships. Additional fundraising efforts — although limited — have not provided promising leads.

“We made the conscious decision to provide a big chunk of money, but not enough money to do this thing,” Perkins said. “We wanted some non-property-tax-paying folks to pick up the slack. We have gone out and looked for foundation money. It wasn’t there. We’ve gone out and looked at other sources. It was not there.”

Costs and solutions

In October, the low construction bid for the swim facility came back at $19.7 million.

“We were thinking it might be in the $14 million neighborhood. That’s what we were expecting,” said Ted Oliver , a swim advocate who was there when the city staff opened the bids. “ ... I felt like I had been hit by a truck.”

The city staff scrambled to come up with a solution to fill the funding gap and to reduce the overall construction costs of the building.

Barber this month asked City Council members to call a special meeting — in their final hour in office — to decide how to make those swim dreams a reality.

At a special City Council meeting Tuesday , members will decide whether to approve a $17.3 million construction contract to build the center and decide how to fill the funding gap.

Council members have said that they would like to take the local tourism board up on its suggestion to make up the difference with hotel tax revenue. Council members, if they follow this path Tuesday , will request a temporary financing option to get the project started quickly.

If the debt is later paid by hotel tax revenue, the coliseum will have to put off other planned uses of that income, such as replacing arena seats.

The final details of the funding issue will have to be approved by the next City Council.

Second thoughts

Some council members, even those who supported the idea of a new pool, now have reservations.

Councilwoman Trudy Wade has expressed concern about whether the facility’s costs, both construction and continual maintenance, now outweigh its economic benefits, considering that there will be no private investment to match the taxpayer support.

“That’s what swayed me,” Wade said of the early suggestion that corporations or nonprofits might help fund the aquatics center. “Now, I found out that isn’t happening.”

Matheny wants to know exactly how the pool facility ended up costing so much more than expected.

“This is not what we signed up for when the bond was presented from the beginning,” he wrote to City Manager Rashad Young this week . “I am not inclined to support something this large in nature without fully understanding the cost, how it relates to the original bond allotment, if we have private financial supporters, and so on.”

The last-minute nature of the decision is also a concern for Mayor-elect Bill Knight , who will be sworn in shortly after the construction and financing decisions are made Tuesday.

Knight plans to lead a more fiscally conservative council than the current group. He said he doesn’t want to start his term $6 million in the hole.

“I’m not sure that having a meeting at that last hour, for whatever reason, promotes that accountability for the citizens of Greensboro,” Knight said.

For supporters like Barber, who could not be reached for comment, the project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city.

Perkins, who has been a pool supporter since its first incarnation a decade ago, said the facility is long overdue.

“We spent two years working on this. Some of us have spent 10 years,” Perkins said. “I’m not backing off my position now.”

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com