The Carmel City Carmel is considering a new resolution to take $613,200 out of the city’s Rainy Day Fund, a reserve savings account, and use it to make repairs to the reflecting pool, across the street from the Palladium.
The Carmel Redevelopment Commission, the pool’s owner, commissioned the 84,300-square-foot pool more than a decade ago using some money from a $1 million federal grant.
CSO Architects designed the pool but now-defunct Eden Enterprises did the construction and several city officials say the work wasn’t done properly. There are cracks and crumbles, which have made what was supposed to be gathering place look run down.
Eden Enterprises filed bankruptcy and closed. There were subsequent legal issues brought out regarding the work. A serious leak was diagnosed early on and finally fixed in 2009.
City Councilor Rick Sharp said that he is in support of fixing the problem, but he has an issue with the money coming from the taxpayer-funded Rainy Day Fund. He said it was a CRC mistake and the CRC owns it, so he questioned why the CRC can’t pay for it. Especially in light of the $2.1 million sale of the Shapiro’s building which means a million dollars — after the debt is paid and forgiven — in the CRC’s bank account.
At the same time, the council voted unanimously to put money back into the Rainy Day Fund at its meeting last week.
The Council approved transferring $220,000 from the Cumulative Capital Sewer Fund No. 206 to the city’s Rainy Day Fund. This is because the city borrowed money from the fund to help pay for engineering costs associated with starting storm water drainage repairs for the Emerson Road project.
