LACEY — In a Thursday work session that lasted all of 20 minutes, Lacey City Council decided that for now it won’t be a funding partner for a regional aquatics facility that the city of Olympia is exploring.

The Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation Department has launched an aquatics facility feasibility study for a recreational asset that will have a regional draw, according to Lacey City Council agenda materials.

And Olympia has invited Lacey to be a funding partner, said Lacey Parks and Recreation director Jen Burbidge on Thursday. Lacey’s parks board recommends the city not commit as a funding partner, largely because the city doesn’t have an identified funding source, she said.

Details about the proposed facility were hard to come by at Thursday’s meeting.

Council members Malcolm Miller and Ed Kunkel inquired about the type and location of the swimming destination, but those details still aren’t known. However, under questioning from Miller, Burbidge agreed it might be similar to the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Mayor Andy Ryder, Deputy Mayor Cynthia Pratt and Councilwoman Carolyn Cox agreed that now is not the time to be a funding partner.

“I see the value of it,” Ryder said about the swimming destination. “As long as we have a staff member at the table, we have time to be a funding partner in the future.”

Councilman Michael Steadman asked the council to remember Max Aunese and the importance of having an alternative place to swim. Aunese is the Lacey resident and former Timberline High School student who drowned in a quarry pond near Millersylvania State Park last month.

“I think we need to be kind in our response to Olympia, but I don’t see us doing this with them when funding is up in the air because of COVID-19,” Cox said.