OBSERVER File Photo The Gowanda Emergency Pool Repair Capital Project will be funded through the District’s existing funds, rather than a tax increase to its residents.

GOWANDA — Gowanda’s healthy reserve fund balance has resulted in the emergency pool repair project not costing any additional money to taxpayers.

Following a public hearing, the Gowanda Board of Education adopted a resolution authorizing the expenditure of up to $1.3 million from the District’s Repair Reserve Fund and up to $400,000 of the District’s unappropriated funds from the General Fund to cover the estimated cost of an Emergency Capital Project to repair the District’s pool.

“This is all funded through the appropriate use of our reserve funds. That’s why they’re here, to fund this stuff,” Gowanda Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson said. “… It’s all money already there, saved appropriately for emergencies and situations like this.”

The project is covered under Type II actions of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), meaning the project is not subject to review. The District and its Board of Education serve as lead agency for the project.

The District conducted an exit poll of voters at the last budget vote to ask if they would support repairing the pool. Of the 94 people to respond, 91 said they were in favor of repairing the pool. After more issues were uncovered, the District also evaluated whether it would be substantially cheaper to replace the pool space for an alternative use, but the District learned that doing so would not be substantially less costly, if at all. Those two factors informed the District in its decision to move forward with an emergency pool repair project.

One of the issues highlighted in a recent audit report from the State Comptroller was the District’s excessive fund balances, including through reserve accounts that were not being utilized. In choosing to fund the majority of the project through utilization of the Reserve Repair account, the District is drawing down its under-utilized reserve account, along with a sizable contribution from its unassigned fund balance, in order to address a major need of the District without requiring any additional tax increase.

The project will replace the failed HVAC unit and tiles that led to substantial leaks when refilling the pool earlier this year. The District consulted with Young and Wright Architectural, who oversaw the emergency repair project with the help of Buffalo Construction Consultants.

The Board was given several options to pick from, ranging from $1.2 million to $1.8 million to address the space. The Board voted in favor of a long-term solution, with a lifespan of approximately 25 years, including replacing the tiles entirely. The cost is estimated at $1.7 million, compared to an estimated $1.6 million to $1.8 million if the pool space were to be repurposed.

The District will likely request to add excess funds of the District back into the Repair Reserve in May of this year, if not May 2026.