Stratford- The Stratford City Council Monday evening reviewed the 2026 season of its Municipal Pool. The pool opened 30 days late due a pool leak on June 30th. A total of 54 days was how long the pool opened for swimmers. The pool was closed 1 full day and 3 partial days due to the weather. Payroll expenses were up this year due to an increase in wages. Lesson revenues were down from the previous year due to not having group lessons. There were several sets of private and buddy lessons. Management thoughts were this pool season was successful with only seven lifeguards. There was also a lengthy discussion on the pressure line for the pool. The pressure line is the piping that fills the baby pool. Currently it still has a leak. The city staff met with both its City Engineer and Structural Engineer from Bolton and Menk, to get some ideas and costs to put in a splash pad. The cost will be significantly more than $100,000. The zero-depth entry area of the pool has two available caps that could be turned into small bubbling water features, but to do that the city of Stratford would still need to fix the pressure line to the baby pool. Stratford City Council members agreed that the pressure line needs to be fixed. The council approved contacting United Leak Detection to find the leak in the pressure pump that fills the baby pool.
There was an extensive conversation at the Stratford City Council involving drainage issues around the incorporated city limits of Stratford. The first topic was the city’s sub-station. A subcommittee has been investigating the drain tile at the sub-station and has been working with Ubben Tiling on the project. Subcommittee members will continue to meet periodically on drainage issues in Stratford. The Stratford City Council voted to approve Ubben Tiling estimate to be changed to a quote of $29,525 to reroute the drain tile at the substation.
Stratford City Council held a short discussion on the water and sewer rates for the community. After much discussion, the council approved allowing City Manager Kim Leeds to put together a spreadsheet showing the rate increases from two to five percent, show the estimated revenue and some of the expenses that could be moved out of the budget for the next fiscal year. The budget issue will be revisited again next month at the council meeting.
In another matter ,the Stratford City Council met with Catherine Bergman about the recent inspection of trees. There are opportunities for trees in the right-of-way,but Bergman explained the city has an ordinance against that they also looked at park paths and are looking for grants to concrete it. The city will also look at grants from Bayer and AARP.
Trick or treat night in Stratford will be from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, October 31st for the youngsters of the community.