The Hingham Town Assembly has voted to borrow $8 million for a new swimming pool complex at the town-owned South Shore Country Club – a move that also needs to be approved by vote in the May 14 mayoral election.
On April 30, the city assembly voted 317 to 95 in favor of overriding state-mandated property tax increases to pay for the pool.
Officials said the loan would cost the owner of an average single-family home, valued at about $925,000, or about $46 a year over the 20-year life of the loan.
Hingham has had a public pool since he bought the country club in 1988, but the pool closed in 2019 for safety reasons. The new pool would be designed to accommodate a removable bubble so it could be used in all seasons, and would include a snack bar, changing room, paddling pool, lap lanes and a “zero-entry” pool with a step-in entrance. slope, making it accessible without ladders or stairs.
The swimming pool would be built on the site of the current tennis courts.
The city assembly also approved spending $3.1 million to complete the design of a new Foster Elementary School to replace the 1951 building. The Massachusetts School Building Authority said it would reimburse about one-third of the cost of the project estimated at $105.3 million.
Additionally, the city assembly voted unanimously to spend $1.6 million in preconstruction costs for a new public safety facility on Route 3A near the Hingham Shipyard. Officials estimate the cost of the three-story, 49,000-square-foot building and parking garage at around $40 million.
The large complex would house a fire station and the police department, although the public safety dispatch center would remain at Hingham Town Hall.
Officials said they plan to ask a special town meeting in the fall to vote on funding for the Foster Elementary School and public safety facility projects.
Johanna Seltz can be contacted at [email protected].