The Winfield Community Development Group (WCDG) will be breaking ground this summer for the Rick Rodgers Community Pool.

The Enhance Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant committee awarded the last-dollar-in $250,000 grant to Winfield Wednesday for construction of the new pool. The grant came after the city raised the remaining $34,000 since they last met with the CAT committee April 18. It was just Tuesday that WCDG still had $7,000 to raise, which prompted the city council to decide at a special meeting Tuesday evening to give the remaining funds to fill that gap. Turns out they didn’t need the council’s help as community members brought in donations Wednesday morning, raising the $7,000. Deputy City Clerk Lisa Rees comments on reaching the fundraising goal, “It was great, it was so rewarding, we worked on this project for about 2.5 years now. What’s amazing is the amount of people that have come forward. I mean April 18th we had $34,000 to go, and it’s just amazing how people they give, and all the volunteers that we’ve had throughout this whole process, it’s just amazing.”

Rees says they will be meeting with the pool designer Paddock Enterprises next week to finalize the plans for a bid letting. Rees expects they will be closing the current Twin Lakes Country Club pool early this summer to start construction on the $1,175,000 facility.