Arnold will improve the indoor swimming experience at the Arnold Recreation Center and explore options to bring a new recreation attraction to the city during the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
City Council members approved a budget last month that includes spending approximately $295,000 to install a new play structure and replace the plaster at the indoor pool. And, while city officials opted not to include an expenditure for about $275,000 to build six outdoor pickleball courts, Parks and Recreation Department Director Dave Crutchley said he and other officials will start searching for a potential spot for the courts.
Crutchley said the indoor pool improvements are needed at the rec center, 1695 Missouri State Road, because the play structure is original to the building, which opened in 2005, and the pool’s plaster had not been replaced since 2010.
“The plaster is the surface that everyone walks on barefoot and rubs against it on the wall,” he said. “With the plaster coming off, it creates sharp edges. That doesn’t work when you are barefoot. It is very important that we get it fixed.”
The play structure is in the pool’s shallow end and has a slide and some water features. Crutchley said the base was replaced about 10 years ago to eliminate rusted pieces and install stainless steel, but now those pieces are rusting.
He said the new structure will be about the same size as the current one in order to keep the landing pad for the slide in the same spot. The new structure will be installed before the plaster is replaced.
“To save money, it makes sense to place the new structure and then plaster around it,” he said.
Crutchley said the indoor pool would be closed while the play structure and new plaster are put in, and he hopes to see the projects start in April. He said he plans to open the outdoor pool earlier next year to provide a place to swim while the indoor pool is closed. The city kept the outdoor pool, which typically closes after the Labor Day weekend, open through October in 2023 while renovations were underway at the indoor pool.
The outdoor pool typically opens on the last Saturday in May during the Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is on May 25, 2026.
“If everything falls in place and the pool doesn’t get worse, we will try to move the guards from indoor to outdoor and open the outdoor pool a month earlier,” Crutchley said. “My goal is to always have a pool open.”
During an Aug. 14 City Council work session when the budget was discussed, Ward 3 Councilman Rodney Mullins said he felt it was a mistake to not budget money to build the pickleball courts.
“If you go to other locations in other communities, there are people clamoring to play pickleball,” he said.
Crutchley said his goal is to bring pickleball courts to the city, but he wants to find the right place for them. He said the $275,000 city officials talked about including in the new budget for the courts would only cover the cost of building them and not the costs for fencing around the facility, possibly installing bathrooms and lighting and making sure there was enough parking around the courts.
He also said finding a city-owned location that does not flood for the pickleball courts is difficult.
“We need to figure out places we could possibly put the courts that make sense,” he said. “It is not going to be an easy discussion. I think we will find out it will be very expensive to put in parking lots, bathrooms and all of that on a dry piece of property.”
Ward 1 Councilman Troy Blacksher suggested on Aug. 14 to build the courts near the Arnold Farmers Market, which is near the entrance of Arnold City Park at 2400 Bradley Beach Road off Jeffco Boulevard near the Meramec River.
“We have a new restroom out there,” he told the council. “We have parking and shaded areas there.”
Crutchley said he worries that there isn’t enough parking around the Farmers Market, which the city is expanding to 80 places for vendors next year. The Farmers Market typically is open from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays starting on the last Saturday in April through the second Saturday in November.
“When do you think most of these people will play pickleball? The weekend,” Crutchley said. “The Farmers Market is packed, and we are adding another 40 spots. That is doubling the size for the market.
“I am looking for the perfect place to put (pickleball courts) to make it work. I don’t want to spend this money and then it doesn’t work. I just want to do it right.”
The budget
Council members voted 7-0 on Aug. 21 to approve the 2025-2026 budget. Ward 3 Councilwoman Peggy Allen was absent from the meeting.
Overall, Arnold expects to collect $35,545,260 in revenue and spend $34,776,817 during the fiscal year, which started Sept. 1 and runs through Aug. 31, 2026. That’s a surplus of $768,443.
The city anticipates collecting $22,717,672 in revenue for its operating fund, which covers day-to-day expenses, while spending $16,411,226, a $6,306,446 surplus. However, it will transfer $5,538,003 from its operating fund to cover the cost of operating the Police Department and rec center and to pay for stormwater improvement projects.
Arnold still anticipates finishing the fiscal year with an extra $768,443 left in its general fund balance, or reserves, which will increase to $3,355,132 from $2,586,689.
Bill Lehmann, interim city administrator and finance director, said the city is on solid financial footing, crediting the 1-cent public safety sales tax to help fund the Police Department that voters approved in 2023 for the stability.
The public safety sales tax is expected to generate $8,474,296 to cover the Police Department’s $11,529,608 in expenditures this fiscal year. Last year, the city collected $8,502,308 from that sales tax and spent $10,756,665 to operate the Police Department.
“It ensures the stability of being able to provide the quality police force the city expects,” Lehmann said. “It also frees up money in the general fund to keep the roads in the conditions we expect and fund services that people want to see, such as the parks.”
Transfers
Along with moving $3,055,312 from the general fund to the police fund, Arnold will transfer $867,526 into the rec center fund and $1,615,165 into the stormwater fund.
The budget projects the rec center collecting $3,420,992 in revenue while spending $4,288,518. Lehmann said he expects the city will not need to subsidize the rec center as much in about six years, when the city is expected to pay off the cost of building the facility.
He said the city pays about $892,000 annually to pay off the certificate of participation that was used to finance the construction of the facility.
“Imagine you don’t have that after six years,” Lehmann said. “That is a huge boost in available money, and at that point, you should be looking at an operation that is either breaking even or coming out ahead. It is like buying a house, once you pay it off, things look better. That is a key thing to consider.”
Arnold expects to collect $716,500 in stormwater revenue while spending $2,331,665. Most of that money is budgeted for the Little Muddy Creek watershed stormwater project the city has been trying to complete since the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
City officials said Arnold is using American Rescue Plan Act funds to cover the cost of the project, and the delay is due to the need to acquire about 120 easements.
Judy Wagner, who had been the Public Works director and now works for Arnold on a part-time basis, said the project calls for improvements to be made along Walnut, Arlene, Roy, Ray, Polly, Jacqueline, Redwood and Sonny drives, as well as to a ditch between the Fox Chase Apartments and Redwood Drive.
Lehmann said Arnold is close to securing all of the necessary easements to possibly start the project this fiscal year.
“We have all of the elements in place to get started fairly quickly after we get all of the easements,” he said.
Employees
Arnold’s two largest expenses are for city employee pay and police officer pay.
The 2025-2026 budget shows city employees receiving an average raise of 3.5 percent, and union police officers getting an average raise of 3 percent.
Lehmann said the city anticipates having 116 full-time employees and about 120 part-time and seasonal employees this fiscal year. He said Arnold had the same number of employees last fiscal year.
Arnold is expected to pay a total of $11,793,626 for employee salaries and benefits this fiscal year after paying $11,213,358 last fiscal year.
The city expects to pay $6,659,467 for police officers’ salaries this fiscal year after paying $6,577,764 last fiscal year.