Additional info from pool committee

Note: Following a presentation by members of the Guttenberg Wave of the Future pool committee at the city council meeting on July 3, the committee passed along additional information addressing community concerns.

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The Pool Committee’s research over the last three years also looked at the following two questions.

1. Why can’t the current pool just be fixed?

The Committee asked Burbach Aquatics engineers to work with City staff to assess the cost and scope of repairing the pool.  A 2014 inventory of needed improvements resulted in a repair cost of up to $1.3M.  This avenue would have addressed only known problems; and the City staff nor Burbach could say how long that investment would have prevented new problems from occurring in the 43-year-old pool vessel.  With no guarantee the $1.3M investment would be sufficient, the pool repair option was then dropped. A recent 2017 pool inspection checklist revealed a loss of 10-12,000 gallons of water daily, adding to the body of knowledge the existing pool vessel does need to be replaced. The new pool, as proposed for construction in 2018 and opening in 2019, has an expected life of 50 years.

2. Why can’t we have an indoor year-round pool?

The Committee asked Burbach Aquatics to research the cost of an indoor pool. The estimate for construction was over $7M.  In addition, the year-round cost of operating the pool would be an ongoing stress for the City budget.  Two other concerns included the challenge of finding year-round life guards, and the preference of many patrons for an outdoor pool experience during the summer. With these known obstacles, the Pool Committee took that option off the table and focused on replacement of the current pool.