Timeline for new pool construction likely to be moved up a year
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
ELLIS — The city of Ellis announced the permanent closure of its municipal pool about two weeks before the end of the season Wednesday after water loss at the facility became unacceptably high, but with the announcement comes a little light at the end of the tunnel; the city council is likely to move forward with the new pool construction a year ahead of schedule.
“The council will take action to move this forward quickly so we don’t lose a year’s worth of the pool,” Ellis Mayor David McDaniel said Wednesday.
The surprising ending of the existing pool caught many off guard in the community, but throughout the season staff at the pool had been fighting a losing battle against water loss that was also likely causing algae growth at one end of the pool.
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Joe Kreutzer, a Kansas certified pool operator, gave the city council a report on the pool at its meeting on July 15, but at that time was hopeful the pool would be able to remain open through the current season and be repaired for one more year’s worth of use.
During the meeting, he reported algae growing on the pool liner was able to be contained by shocking the pool with chlorine, but several cracks had appeared during the season as well as a 3-foot depression in the bottom of the pool, where water was likely seeping through the liner and allowing algae to enter.
At that time, Kreutzer did not believe the pool was a health risk and was closely monitoring chlorine levels along with water loss and algae growth.
But even then, Kreutzer said he was getting frequent questions from the public about the constant filling of the pool and told the council the city had pumped almost 840,000 gallons of water into the pool including the initial 385,000 gallons for the initial fill.
It was estimated the pool was losing 30,000 gallons of water every two to three days.
“It’s gotten steadily worse since then,” McDaniel said. “There is water apparently leaking under the liner that is creating an issue with algae. They have been able to shock it and contain it up until the last week — now it is out of control.”
That led to the recommendation from Kreutzer to close the pool.
“We are just trying to cope with what we have to work with here, but we cannot tolerate that much water loss,” McDaniel said.
He did not have total water loss numbers available Wednesday, but said the more recent water loss was “massive.”
While McDaniel also said there was no chance the old pool would reopen, they were planning to remove the liner and try to determine what was causing the water loss.
Even with the possibility of moving the new pool construction ahead by one year, at the city council’s meeting on July 1, Amy Burton, speaking on behalf of the pool improvement committee, said through grants the cost of the new pool was almost covered. She was confident the remaining funds could be raised through other grants and direct fundraising efforts.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.85 million with the city council agreeing to fund $500,000 of the project.
Ellis received a Community Development Block Grant in June for $1 million and accepted another grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation at the city council’s meeting on July 1 that will cover another $300,000.
“We have now been awarded a total of $1.3 million to put toward the swimming pool improvement project,” Burton told the council at the meeting, noting that is over 70 percent of the funding needed for the project.
“Right now, we only lack $50,500 of the $500,000 benchmark that the council talked about in April,” she said.
The committee was working at that time to develop ideas for community involvement that would raise the remaining funds, including some area sports tournaments and a Splash Bash that would be held at the pool.
“I think it is safe to say the pool committee is very eager to make this happen,” Burton said.
At that meeting, Burton also shared with the council some of the problems the pool had been facing this season.
Most notably, the liner in the baby pool had come off the bottom pool, causing it to close for two days in June.
“Essentially, we had a patch fail,” Burton said.
The facility also had to close sporadically during the season as chlorine levels were too high after treatment for the algae.
Burton told the council it was not a matter of if the pool will become unrepairable, but rather a matter of when.
“We know that this pool is on its last leg. We are 30 years over life expectancy,” she said.
Following her report, the council voted unanimously to approve fundraising efforts not to exceed $1,000 that would be used for materials to assist in the fundraising, such as food, raffle prizes and supplies for the Splash Bash.
While the fundraising will continue if the committee comes up short, McDaniel said Wednesday the city would cover the difference to make sure the city has a pool next summer
“Whatever is left, we will make up some way,” he said.