The city of John Day is getting $2 million to help fund the construction of an aquatic center and $1 million for a new Kam Wah Chung interpretive center.

The funding comes amid a flurry of spending at the end of the 2021 Oregon legislative session — otherwise known as the “Christmas Tree Bill” — which is a collection of local projects and programs.

Under Senate Bill 5534, $2 million in net proceeds of lottery bonds will be allocated to the city of John Day to construct an aquatics center.

In House Bill 5006, the city was awarded $1 million for the proposed Kam Wah Chung interpretive center.

Nick Green, John Day city manager, said the pool project would be a joint effort between the city of John Day, the John Day/Canyon City Parks and Recreation District and the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department.

According to the legislation, the appropriation will:

“Create jobs, further economic development, finance public education, or restore and protect parks, beaches, watersheds, and native fish and wildlife, and is authorized based on the finding that improving access to recreation services will enhance the economic viability of the region, create jobs and improve the quality of life for the community.”

Green said the plan is to use the proceeds of the sale of the old pool to go toward the operations and maintenance costs.

He said this $2 million windfall would reduce the pool’s cost by at least a third of the original proposal of $6 million.

He said the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department provided separate funding through the Integrated Parks System to build a parking lot at the west end of the Seventh Street Complex. Green said the parking lot would be for both the pool and Little League events.

Green said the city of John Day and Parks and Rec provided the matching funds for that grant.

He said, to cut costs, Parks and Rec offered a space for the new pool on the land they own at Seventh Street.

“They worked collaboratively with the city of John Day to come up with a plan for the new pool that’s financially viable,” he said. “But we needed an assist from the city of John Day and the state to get it done.”

Green said it was a “team effort” by three different agencies and the county’s state legislators to help create a new pool that will last.

“Both of these investments will improve the livability and financial viability of Grant County and will benefit businesses and residents who work in the services industry,” Green said, “specifically at our local restaurants and lodging establishments that were the hardest hit by COVID-19.”

The city of John Day abandoned plans to ask for voter approval for a bond for construction and a taxing district for operations costs for a replacement for Gleason Pool last year.

While Green said the city and Parks and Rec would move forward with operations and maintenance costs without going to the public for fundraising, he said they might need some additional fundraising to build the pool at the scale that the community wants.

“We’d like to have a competition pool that’s larger and a little bit colder and then a warm water pool for aerobics and teaching younger kids,” he said. “And that’s what’s in the plan. We’d like to be able to build the full plan, but the cost of the full plan is $6 million. So, at $2 million. We’ve taken a third of the cost off the table.”

Green said they might be able to come up with some other funding sources to reduce any further costs or they might go out to the public and ask if they want to put in some money to build the facility as it was designed.

“Either way,” he said, “we’re going to build something.”