Excavation delay won’t affect Hopkins Pool’s 2026 reopening in DeKalb

The excavation of the new Hopkins Pool support building in DeKalb has been delayed, but officials said that won’t deter plans for reopening in time for summer 2026.

The DeKalb Park Board recently was briefed by district staff and a representative from the construction engineering company IHC Construction on the status of constructing the new $14 million Hopkins Pool.

DeKalb Park District executive director Paul Zepezauer said project leaders had been unable to perform excavation work on the Hopkins Pool support building. The Hopkins Pool support building is expected to undergo renovations to the facility’s lobby, mechanical room, admissions room, and lifeguard and first-aid rooms.

“We had a little bit of delay with some rebar that we need to get concrete going,” Zepezauer said. “We don’t really want to excavate and then have an open hole sitting there if we don’t have rebar ready to go.”

Project leaders said they have a tentative rebar delivery commitment for the week of July 28.

Excavation is now anticipated to start the week of July 21, as is stormwork.

After the meeting, Zepezauer said the excavation delay will not prevent Hopkins Pool from reopening in 2026.

The park district awaits a permit from the Illinois Department of Public Health to begin excavation work on the pool. Officials said they anticipate that permit as early as August.

Also at the meeting, the park board reviewed several cost items that were left off the project bid when officials authorized Hopkins Pool improvements. They include pool heaters, deck drains, columns, lobby renovations and more.

Zepezauer questioned how the park board wants to proceed with change orders. He referred to the pool heaters, which would come with a roughly $80,000 price tag, as an example.

“The pool heaters exceed my authorized limits, but they’re within what the board has approved for the overall project,” Zepezauer said. “The question to the board is, as long as the items are within the contingency budget that has already been approved as part of the whole project, are you comfortable with me signing off on change orders? Do you want to approve change orders that exceed my purchasing limits?”

The board’s consensus showed members were interested in having some form of notification about change orders.

Board Vice President Brian Tobin said he believes it’s important for the park board to be notified.

“Being that we only meet once a month, as long as it’s within the scope of the project, I’m fine,” Tobin said. “I just want to be notified that there’s a change order, whether that’s the monthly update or an update to the board.”

Board Secretary Tia Anderson said she, too, would like to be kept in the loop. But she said she is only concerned that the park district has only gotten so far with the project.

“There’s no way to really do anything about that,” Anderson said. “It’s just something we need to be fiscally concerned about.”