Marietta Board of Education members Chris Fennell, left, and Taylor Huffman, right, listen as Board President Cody Parman discusses plans for the upcoming Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting during a special board meeting Thursday.(Photo by Amber Phipps)

The Marietta City Board of Education met for a special meeting Thursday to discuss further details about a proposed pool with the Mid-Ohio Valley Aquatic Center and approve funding for the soccer stadium lighting.

The board voted unanimously to approve an agreement by which the district will pay $153,000 of $193,000 for the proposed lighting, leaving the boys and girls soccer teams with the responsibility to acquire the remaining $40,000.

The lighting will be updated at the high school soccer stadium at 615 River Road.

To help fund their campaign, the teams have extended requests to the community and local businesses.

“The two soccer programs are still actively trying to find as much money as possible for that $40,000,” said Marietta High School girls soccer coach Ben Schenkel. “We started reaching out to businesses.”

Treasurer Frank Antill said they needed to act on this now in order to get the project done by the next season.

For the remainder of the meeting, the board discussed their individual thoughts and concerns on the proposed Mid-Ohio Valley Aquatic Center pool project.

Board member Russ Garrison said in previous board meetings the MOVAC received money from the state which they had access to until June. The process required immediate discussions and decisions to hit that timeline.

Board member Jeff Hollister said he supports the pool but felt there needed to be other steps such as facility assessments and funding parameters established before any discussions.

“I think going forward, this is not advisable at all until we get the facility assessment,” he said.

Although no decisions were made, the board shared concerns about traffic congestion, finances, future funding and location of the pool.

Board member Chris Fennell said his main concern was the amount of traffic the pool could potentially bring in. He said depending on the location, there could be vehicular congestion as well as it would bring in more people near schoolgrounds.

“Anytime you’re putting extra vehicles around kids, I just worry about that,” said Fennell. “Students are our first priority.”

Hollister said they shouldn’t be the ones fleshing out the exact plan and it should be up to the MOVAC to present them with a plan that the board would pick through.

“I think we should react to a proposal,” said Hollister.

MOVAC board members Gene Hollins and Josh Jacobs shared their input based on the concerns that were raised.

“This is part of the goal that’s been accomplished tonight; it started a discussion about an MOU (memorandum of understanding),” said Hollins.

Hollins said he anticipated a first draft, worked through with legal counsel, that would then be edited to include all parameters and concerns.

“This would be a win for the kids, for the district, and I think this is a huge benefit to the city and to the school district,” said Hollins.

The proposed location of the regional aquatic center would be on the side of the high school building near Colegate Drive. Hollins said they had the site analyzed and a concept was constructed for the pool as well as cost estimates.

Board President Cody Parman asked members of the MOVAC if they could create a proposal based on the concerns raised during the meeting. He said that proposal would then answer some of their questions and further the discussion process.

“I think we’d like a clear direction,” said Jacobs. “I think we need to understand … any of those parameters that you want before we come back.”

The board was in agreement they weren’t looking into furthering the conversation about the recreation center which would include courts.

Parman said he would collect all of the board member’s parameters and present it to the MOVAC by next week so they could propose a plan based on what the board provided.

“I think this project is incredibly exciting and has a lot of potential for our community,” said Parman. “Everybody just wants to do what’s right and make sure that it’s the right thing for our district.”

Jacobs said they spoke with local and state governments like the Washington County Commission and Ohio Rep. Kevin Ritter and Sen. Brian Chavez and reported all were supportive of the project.

He said he appreciated the board’s collaboration and getting back to them about discussions in a timely manner.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com