The Canon City Area Recreation and Park District opened the R.C. Icabone Swimming Pool in 1966. It served the community for 57 summers at its original location-1131 College Ave. When built, the pool had a life expectancy of 25-30 years, but its useful life doubled thanks to the work of dedicated staff and board members over that time. During the later part of its life, there were three ballot initiatives to either replace or repair the facility: 1989, 2000, 2006. All three failed by 10 points or more.

In 2018 Terracon performed a site audit of the facility and determined that the facility had outlived its useful life. In December 2019 Associated Pool Builders reviewed the facility and estimated that at most the facility could only last another three years. The Recreation District also consulted with numerous other commercial pool professionals and all concurred that the pool needed to be replaced. In 2021 a fourth ballot initiative to build a recreation center to replace the Icabone Pool was unsuccessful. Then in May 2023, Counsilman-Hunsaker updated the site audit. After reviewing the audit and the multiple serious mechanical and structural issues at this aging facility, the Recreation District made the difficult decision to close the pool.

Now the Canon City Area Recreation District and the City of Canon City have engaged the firms OLC, Counsilman-Hunsaker and Ballard*King to conduct a feasibility study for the creation and operation of a new Community Pool to serve our community for the next 50+ years.

An important aspect of the study is community engagement. This website serves both as an information hub for the public and a tool to gather feedback from our community. We encourage you to complete the surveys and value your comments and questions.

Please direct any questions or comments to the Canon City Recreation District Website at https://www.ccrec.org/r-c-icabone-pool-replacement or click the button below.

As part of the study, and to garner community feedback, three (3) separate rounds of public surveys were conducted using a web-based survey tool that was found on this website [engage.counsilmanhunsaker.com/ccrd-pool-study]. Through the duration of the study, over 5,700 contributions were made from over 3,300 contributors. The website, also used as a landing page for project updates, Q&A, and supplemental study information had over 11,000 unique page visits.

A summary of all feedback can be found below. Additional survey specifics can be found in the tabs below.

• Strong Community Support: There is significant support for a new aquatics center, especially with recreational pools and fitness amenities being highly desired.
• Funding Preferences: The community prefers user fees, donations, and corporate sponsorships over tax initiatives to fund the project, with tax increases being the least supported option.
• Mixed Sentiment: While many see the pool as a valuable resource for health and community, there are notable concerns about funding and skepticism due to past failed initiatives.
• Location and Design Preferences: The Icabone Pool site is the most favored location, with a preference for a central, accessible site and a hybrid indoor/outdoor design to ensure year-round usability.
• Programming Priorities: Recreational swimming and swim lessons are the top programming preferences, reflecting the community’s desire for a facility that caters to a wide range of users.
• Alternative Funding Suggestions: The community expresses a strong desire to minimize tax impacts, with suggestions for alternative funding through grants, sponsorships, and other non-tax revenue sources. Most residents preferred sales tax over property tax increases.
• Diving board(s), waterslides, lap lanes, and climbing wall activities were the highest ranked amenities.
• Option 3 ranked highest amongst the 1,437 contributors with a weighted average of 3.59, followed by option 2 at 3.13, and option 1 at 2.32.

A committee was formed for the purposes of providing project updates. The committee was made up of 10 people with staff support from both the City of Canon City and the Recreation District. Meetings were led by Bob McDonald of OLC. The committee included the following: