The Brian Bent Memorial Aquatic Center (BBMAC) on the Coronado High School campus will be closed from July 23 until November 1, 2015 to install a new deck. During the closure, many of the programs that call the facility home will relocate to the municipal pool at the Community Center. This will cause some disruption at the municipal pool, as portions of the Community Center pool will be closed to recreational users and team swimmers will have to share space.
While the BBMAC pool is closing on July 23, the city expects the biggest impact on the Community Center pool to appear in mid-August when the high school starts using the pool, according to Lori Stucki, the city’s aquatics supervisor.
“We don’t have a revised schedule [for the Community Center pool], because we are still waiting to hear from the high school,” she said. “We’ll post a revised schedule as soon as we do.”
The BBMAC deck had to be replaced because it had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer safe. Rebar and small chunks of concrete have been breaking off, and as a result, the deck was becoming unstable.
“There was some talk about repairing the deck, but we decided it was more prudent to replace it,” Keith Butler, Associate Superintendent for Business and Finance for the Coronado Unified School District (CUSD). At its March 5 meeting, the school districts’ governing board voted to awarded the contract to California Commercial Pools.
Closing the pool for three months will affect a number of organizations and individuals who use the pool on a regular basis. These include the Coronado Aquatics Club (CAC) and the Coronado Navy Swim Association (CNSA), as well as boys water polo.
Besides swimming and water polo, BBMAC also hosts lifeguard training, water and sports physical therapy, and private and semi-private swim lessons. Only the CAC and CNSA will use the municipal pool during the BBMAC closure period; other groups who typically use the BBMAC pool have had to make arrangements elsewhere.
Use of the municipal pool will cost the district $75 per hour for water polo and $12 per hour for each meter of lane and $7 per hour for each 25 yard lane, according to Roger Miller, Director of Golf and Recreation Services. Despite the additional cost the district is happy to have a place for the high school teams to practice. “The city is being generous in altering their schedules to help water polo,” Butler said. The swimmers and water polo players coming over from BBMAC will take up 531 hours of pool time.
In addition to charging for use of their pool, the city also asked the district to return the favor when it comes time to replace the municipal pool’s deck. “The city would anticipate the same cooperation in anticipation of any work/maintenance done on the city pool,” Miller said
“The same contractor installed our deck, so we expect ours will have to be replaced sometime in the near future and will need someplace to send our swimmers,” Stucki said. “It’s just not as far gone as the one at the BBMAC,” Stucki said. Both decks were built around the same time, eight years ago for the BBMAC and 10 years for the municipal pool.
Even though it is newer, the BBMAC deck deteriorated more quickly because it has a different design. “Ours has an overflow gutter. They have an cantilever gutter,” Stucki explained. Both only had a one-year warranty on the work. There was no reason to expect that decks would need a warranty beyond the initial one.
“Most decks have lifetime expectancy of 30 years,” Butler said. The district has hired a new contractor to build the new deck and has entertained the idea of suing the first company, but has made no decision at the time, Butler said.
Right now the district is focused on installing a new deck and seeing that the water pool team has a place to practice for three months.
The district will will suffer a substantial financial blow from the deck replacement. Besides paying for the high school teams to practice at the municipal pool, the district is shelling out a little over one million dollars to build the new deck. BBMAC will also forfeit three months of revenue during the closure period, a triple whammy for a facility that was just beginning to become solvent.
“We had planned on the pool breaking even in 2015-2016. Now me may lose approximately $20,000,” Butler said.
Much of the loss will be countered by a reserve fund the district set up soon after the aquatic center was completed.
These numbers, of course, are vaild only if the project is completed in its expected three month window. Construction projects don’t always go as planned, with the cost sometimes more than expected. Even something as simple and straightforward as replacing a pool deck can be hobbled by unexpected delays and costs. Still Butler is adamant that BBMAC will reopen on schedule. “We will drain the pool on July 23 and will reopen on November 1.”
——-
Gloria Tierney
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
