On a hot summer day, Waynesville High School Sophomore Samantha McGaughy wouldn't want to get a tan anywhere else than at the pool.

"Here if you get hot, you can just jump in the pool," says McGaughy.

Fort Leonard Wood decided to share its pool with the surrounding community 4 years ago, when Waynesville's shut down. $5 for adults and $3 for kids.

"Everybody needs a pool," says Cheri McKinney, who lives on the base, doesn't mind sharing.

For now, the Wallace Pool at Fort Leonard Wood is the only option near McGaughy's home in St. Robert. (The closest community pools are in Richland and Crocker.) That's something the city is hoping to change with a new aquatic center that would cost nearly $4 million.

"I think it's a good idea," says McGaughy, who likes the Wallace pool, but doesn't like having to drive there.

"The support from the residents has been very high, very positive," says St. Robert City administrator Alan Clark of the pool plan.

Clark says the city will break ground in October, but only if voters vote yes on a 1/4 cent sales tax next month.

"It will generate roughly over a little bit more than $475,000 per year in revenue, strictly for park and park improvements," says Clark.

He says he recognizes a tax is sometimes an up-stream battle, so he's making residents a deal: "If that passes on August fourth, effective one January, 2010, the city will repeal the personal property tax on the residents of St. Robert."

Residents will still have to pay property tax to the county, but not the city. Currently the city only makes a little over $25,000 a year on property tax collections.

"We didn't want to add an additional tax liability onto the residents without giving them something back in return," says Clark.

CLICK HERE to see more of St. Robert's planned aquatics facility.

Contact: dmagditch@kspr.com