Photo by Deb Gau Using stickers on a series of posters at the Red Baron Arena, Marshall residents voted for the types and sizes of pools they would like to see at an updated city Aquatic Center, as well as features the center could have. Around 40 to 50 people attended a Wednesday public meeting where designers answered questions and gathered people’s feedback on the Aquatic Center project.

MARSHALL — If the city of Marshall plans to build an updated Aquatic Center, there’s a lot that will need to be considered. Among the things designers will need to think about are what kinds of features the public wants the Marshall Aquatic Center to have.

“We don’t have a cookie-cutter design put together,” said landscape architect David Locke. To be successful, the Aquatic Center should reflect the needs of the community, he said. “We want this to be an interactive process with you.”

Around 40 to 50 people, including Marshall residents, families, and staff members from the Marshall Aquatic Center, attended a public input meeting at the Red Baron Arena and Expo on Wednesday night. Representatives of Stockwell Engineers walked the audience through some of the ongoing planning process for updating the Aquatic Center, and gathered their ideas for the type of pool, size and features the Aquatic Center should have.

Audience members were asked to share some of their top priorities for the Aquatic Center.

Some of the more popular ideas included having a pool for competition swimming, as well as recreational features like a splash pad or a zero-depth entry pool.

The city has been discussing the Aquatic Center’s future for the past couple of years. In 2019, the city received the results of a study that recommended replacing Marshall’s 50-year-old pool and bath house. The current Aquatic Center pool leaks around a million gallons of water a year, and the center has accessibility issues and a lack of privacy in the changing and restroom areas, among other problems.

“It’s seeing its age,” Locke said of the current Aquatic Center.

Locke said Stockwell’s team has talked to a number of local stakeholders about what Marshall needs in a new center. At Wednesday’s meeting, they hoped to get more feedback.

“We need to start with, what’s going to be the purpose of the Aquatic Center?” Locke said. Community members needed to think about whether they wanted a recreational center for families, something that included facilities for fitness or competition swimming, or a mix of purposes.

Design team members tallied votes from the audience on what their priorities for the Aquatic Center were. Many people wanted open recreational swimming, but also to be able to use the Aquatic Center for swimming lessons and competitive swimming. Some of the pool features that received a lot of votes from audience members included a competition pool, a zero-depth entry, water slides and a “lazy river” type feature.

Audience members also spoke about other priorities they had for an aquatic center.

“Supervision is a concern,” one Marshall resident said. Having a separate pool area for younger children would be helpful instead of having one interconnected pool. Residents also suggested making sure there was a concessions area at the updated center, and that the facility have features appropriate for people with special needs.

Locke said the design team would meet with a steering committee this week to go over the results of the meeting. They plan to create a design concept later this summer, and gather more feedback from Marshall residents and the Marshall City Council.