Haxtun Swimming Pool Project needs community re-engagement

Trisha Herman, Phillips County Economic Development Director was able to bring Great Outdoor Colorado Roadshow out to Holyoke High School on Thursday, July 7. PC regional GOCO representative, Sammie George, was on hand to help make towns aware and learn about GOCO funding opportunities, how to submit competitive proposals and to ask questions and get feedback on local projects. It is also a great opportunity to think about how GOCO programs could help with implementing some of the strategies and recommendations that will be encompassed in our regional Roadmaps Plans as they develop and are drafted.

Abby Henry, Swimming Pool Committee Member, and Ron Carpenter, Town of Haxtun Superintendent, were able to meet and ask questions to GOCO representatives to learn more about an upcoming GOCO grant opportunity for the Haxtun Swimming Pool. Due to the fundraising that the community has already done to show a strong interest in the project, the trio learned that the Haxtun Pool Project has finally hit some of the benchmarks it needed to begin the grant process. One of the main things that GOCO will look at is if there is buy-in from the community. Therefore, it is an absolute must that we re-engage the community to gain updated community impact into this project. Given the news, Herman and Henry have a short turnaround time to get the first step of the grant process in by Thursday, Aug. 4, which means they are calling upon local community members to help show support or rather let their comments be heard through this Haxtun Swimming Pool Survey. Receiving the GOCO grant would require the pool to be an outdoor pool. GOCO would also help the Town develop the pool GOCO grant plan and would cover the bulk of the cost of building the new swimming pool.

The committee will also need support letters as well as surveys about what the kids want at the swimming pool. A poster board has been put on display at the Haxtun Swimming Pool. Kids are allowed to put a sticker on which top feature they would like to have at the new pool. Even if your young child can draw what they would like to have at the new pool, for instance a diving board - that constitutes GOCO's survey. Another idea that was brought up was for a group of kids to come together and create an edited YouTube video show-casing our current pool, why it is important for our community to have a pool and conduct short interviews with different individuals who use the pool for different purposes such as parents that use the pool with infants and toddlers to senior citizens that may walk in the pool to ease chronic pain. Organizers would like to capture community members that use the pool for multiple different reasons. If you or your child are technology capable of volunteering to work on editing a YouTube video to highlight the significance of having a pool in our community, please reach out to Stephanie Starkebaum at the Phillips County Extension Office at (970) 854-3616.

Organizers greatly appreciate community members taking the time to complete this 10-question survey to let your voices be heard. Please feel free to comment at the bottom of the survey any suggestions, concerns or anything you feel is vital for the pool committee to know. Please write in other events, features and activities that you and your children would like to have or participate in if you don't see your answer listed. They also invite you to complete section number 10 if you would like to help in any way.

In addition to the online survey, printed surveys are scattered at various businesses all over Town. The Haxtun Town Hall will be collecting paper surveys. Please have your paper survey turned into the Haxtun Town Hall by Friday, July 15 no later than 4 p.m.

Please scan the QR code at left with the camera on your smartphone device to be taken to the survey link. You can also find the survey at https://forms.gle/QEZodf2LUpkC1wtT7.

For more information about Great Colorado Outdoors Grant opportunities, especially to see what they have helped pay for in the past for Phillips County, visit  https://goco.org/programs-projects/funded-projects.