City council discusses pool

The local pool was an item of interest at the Superior Town Council's meeting held on Monday, August 9. Scott Anderson, from Anderson-Montgomery Consulting Engineers in Helena, presented the findings of the evaluation he performed on the pool.

One of the problems is a slow leak that has become worse over the past few years. The leak is a 19-year-old problem according to Mayor Mike Wood, but has recently grown to the point that if the council wishes to keep the pool open then the leak needs to be fixed.

"It's to the point where we can't ignore it anymore. If we want to keep the pool open the leak has to be fixed for several reasons," Wood said.

Because of the leak, the solar panels do not heat the pool efficiently and so money has been spent on fuel to heat the pool. The leak has increased the cost of chemicals and Wood said that this year they spent twice as much as last year. Finally, with the continued loss of water, the leak is contributing to buildings settling.

Another problem that the pool presents is the slope of the pool as it moves from the shallow end into the deeper end.

On August 9, Anderson presented four different improvement alternative options to the council. The first option that was presented to the council was to repair the leak and to replace the bathhouse, which was estimated at around $438,461. The second alternative presented was to repair the leak, replace bathhouse and to upgrade the pool for around $554,381. The third option was to build a completely brand new pool similar to the current pool which was estimated at just over a million dollars. The fourth alternative presented to the council was to build a new pool that would be a rectangular in shape and allow the town to have a swim team and that would cost around $1,233,189.

Wood said that before the town moves forward with any of the four options it is important that they find out how serious the leak is. Wood said that since the pool has closed for the season the plan is to rent an air-hammer, break up some of the concrete and see if they can dig up the pipes to see if they can find the leak.

"Doing this will determine the seriousness of the problem," Wood said. "We're looking at spending maybe up to $1,500 from now to the next town council meeting to figure out where the leak is and how much it's going to cost to fix."

Wood said that once they know that information they will know whether or not they'll abandon the pool. However, Wood said that they are hopeful that the leak will be able to be fixed at a fairly low cost.

"We're trying to save the pool," Wood said.

If the leak gets fixed, there are other things that Anderson suggested to the council as alternatives to rebuilding the current pool. Anderson recommended that the council should seek a waiver for the slope. Wood said that Anderson believed that they had a good chance of getting the waiver as they have "very good lifeguard coverage" when the pool is open. If the leak is fixed and the waiver obtained, there are only a few other little things that would need to be done before another swimming season. These include installing hot water for the showers, providing new warning signs, showing depth numbers on vertical sides of pool, place a handrail on diving board, install backflow preventer and service meter on water supply and replace coarse screens on skimmers. Anderson also said that the council should begin to develop a long-term plan for replacement or upgrade of pool as the facility is fifty years old.

"We're going to try and form a committee to look into this," Wood said. "We want to get the community involved and here what they have to say."

Wood said that right now he can't speculate on what may happen or what won't as they still need to figure out the conditions of the leak. However, he said the goal is to keep the pool open as he believe there are several benefits to having a pool, the first being that swim lessons are offered to students in the community.

Wood also mentioned that the pool gives kids something to do in the summer as well as offers high school kids employment.

"It's an excellent first job," Wood said. "It teaches them what it means to be employed."

Wood also noted that the pool is a benefit to the older population providing aerobic exercises in the water.

If a new pool should be built, Wood said that they would only be allowed a loan up to $330,000 and the rest of the funding would need to come from some sort of grant. Wood mentioned that they're not many public grants and it would probably have to be a private grant. However, all of this remains in question.

For years, the pool has been operating on a deficit budget. It costs approximately a little over $500 a day to run the pool, and only 25 percent of that expense is covered by the revenue the pool brings in. The expenses include electricity, maintenance, repairs, chemicals, employees and more.

Wood said that while it might be fiscally responsible to raise rates, he would hate to do that as some of the poorer families currently may have a hard time affording to come to the pool.