The 50-meter swimming pool in Holding Park at the corner of West Owen Avenue and South Main Street will not open Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30, because of a serious leak and the need to re-plaster and paint the walls. The best current estimate for the pool to open is July 1.
Ruben Wall, the Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Department director, explained to the town board Tuesday night that when the department staff began the annual pre-season prepping they found there were major leaks around the caulking at the expansion joints and later that water had found its way behind the paint. The plaster, Wall said, is expected to last 10 years, 15 years with good maintenance, and the pool was replastered 14 years ago. The caulk problem can be solved, he said, with a new product used by the Carolina Hurricanes. The leaks are caused by the earth shifting slightly, shifting the joints in the pool.
The estimated cost for the repairs is $110,000 to $120,000. The pool has already been drained to let a contractor examine it and make the repairs.
To make up for the delay in opening, Commissioner Margaret Stinnett suggested keeping the pool with limited hours through the second week in September. “We’re going to look at that,” Wall said. “It was discussed internally today.” “With 20,000 people who went to the pool last year, I think we need to do it,” Stinnett said.
The original pool with its ornate stonework opened in 1942 and was built with both town and federal funds. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) paid $67,117 and the town approving bonds that paid $12,800. The pool was totally rebuilt in 1977 to its present size. Tuesday night Wall showed the commissioners a PowerPoint of all the renovations and improvements done to the mechanical system, the locker rooms and bathrooms in 2013 and 2014 for $800,000.
One Response
I live beside the city pool. What consistently surprises and confounds me EVERY YEAR is that the town literally ABANDONS pool maintenance during the winter. They will keep water in it until sometime around Thanksgiving, then they stop. The pool bottom is then dry, exposed to the elements. I feel reasonably sure that some seals that are typically wet and expanded, then dry, shrink, and crack.
I propose keeping the pool filled year round (LIKE EVERY ONE ELSE DOES WITH THEIR POOLS). Put a cheap floating vapor barrier top on it during the winter to keep evaporation to a minimum. DON’T let the seals dry out. Maintain what you have annually so you don’t have to spend ANOTHER WAD of taxpayer cash fixing the silly thing every year.