Citing “challenges that are out of our control,” the City of Bettendorf and the YMCA of the Iowa Mississippi Valley announced that the opening of The Landing’s pool is being pushed back a year until 2025.
The city and the YMCA, which are partnering on the new $22.9 million aquatic facility and ice rink, announced the new construction timeline in a news release late Monday, Feb. 12.
A permanent outdoor ice rink, another feature of the new city-owned amenity, is scheduled to open in November. That’s six months ahead of the pool’s opening.
“We are committed to building these two premier amenities for the community in a safe, efficient, and cost-effective environment,” City Administrator Decker Ploehn said in the release. “We are experiencing some challenges that are out of our control, but we believe this new timeline is the best way forward to fulfill our commitment.”
The initial goal of opening the 12,500-square-foot activity pool this May was complicated due to significant delays in the state permitting process and supply chain issues. The pool’s completion date now needs to be pushed back to mid-July. Officials say that is too late to start a safe pool season. The aquatic center portion of the project is an $18 million investment.
“We are looking forward to opening the aquatic side of The Landing, but unfortunately the timing is not looking good for the summer of 2024,” said Brad Martell. He’s the CEO of the YMCA, which will operate the aquatic facility. “We will need 35 lifeguards to staff it and trying to find this many lifeguards at the end of the season would be difficult. We all feel it would be better to wait until 2025 when everything is completed.”
Testing impacts timing
According to Mr. Ploehn, “Activating a pool doesn’t happen overnight. Even if construction is finished in mid-July, the state needs to test the pool which could take days or even weeks.”
Due to the challenges and concerns, officials with the city and YMCA along with the project’s contractor, General Constructors, Inc. (GCI), have decided to keep construction going through 2024.
The schedule change will allow crews to complete the remainder of the aquatic facility – a three-story-high slide tower with three slides, a 430-foot-long lazy river, and a 3,700-square-foot splash pad – by May 2025 as well as the entire ice rink by November 2024.
“While we understand this means there will be another season without a community pool in Bettendorf, we are very excited that the ice rink will be completed earlier than expected,” Mr. Ploehn added. “We’re very pleased with RDG’s design, GCI’s progress, and –- rest assured – the city is planning a wonderful grand opening of this brand-new ice amenity and, together with the Y, will hold another one for our brand-new water amenity only six months later.”
Groundbreaking in 2023
The project’s partners broke ground on June 2, 2023, as Bettendorf observed its 120th birthday celebration day. With dozens of supporters gathered at the 23rd Street and Middle Road site, Mayor Bob Gallagher remarked “It’s really cool for us to be celebrating our 120th birthday and launching a transformational project that will hopefully serve us that long into the future.”
The multi-million-dollar recreational amenity became a reality thanks to the partnership between the city and YMCA of Iowa Mississippi Valley. Both entities invested $6 million each into The Landing. In addition to eventually managing the aquatic center, the Y also took over the city’s Life Fitness Center and now operates it as one of its Y facilities.
Other financial support for The Landing came from the Riverboat Development Authority, Scott County Regional Authority, Scott County, Bechtel Trust and a $790,000 Enhance Iowa grant.
For updates, designs, a livestream of the construction site, and more, visit www.bettendorf.org/TheLanding.
