(KAIR)--Atchison’s municipal swimming pool will not open for the summer season.

The Atchison City Commission, during the regular Monday meeting, voted unanimously to keep the Lions Pool closed for the 2020 season.

The recommendation to approve the COVID-19-related closure was made by Atchison City Manager Becky Berger. “If you look at the County’s plan, we could potentially open the last day of June, assuming everything goes according to plan, and we don’t have new cases, to open the pool in late June...[but] we’re really at the end of the season by the time we could potentially open.”

Berger, during her presentation, explained that the pool annually loses nearly $100,000 in operating costs for the City. In a release issued following the meeting, Berger explained that with sales tax revenues expected “to take a major hit,” losing the $100,000 “would have been irresponsible.”

Berger, during the session, explained that the pool’s downtime could be used to make improvements. “We have $50,000 budgeted next year to do repairs to the bottom of the pool. I would like to see us do that this year. Maybe hold off until we get further into the summer and we’ve got a better idea of the revenues coming in.”

The approval of the closure came shortly after Atchison County officials announced the 12th confirmed virus case in the county Monday afternoon.

That case is identified as a teenage boy.

Atchison Dr. John Eplee, during an appearance on the 93.7 FM morning show Tuesday, said the age of the latest Atchison County case is surprising. “Based on the demographics, this has been relegated to being an older person’s disease, but it touches all age groups, and we finally have a teenager with it.”

Eplee added that all indicators show there is community virus spread in the area.