Red Oak Pool opening planned for June 19

After a lengthy delay, the Red Oak Municipal Pool will soon be open for the summer.
City administrator Lisa Kotter said that the targeted opening date of the pool will be June 19, though the pool may open a day or two earlier, if possible. After troubleshooting, Kotter said ACCO Unlimited crews were able to pinpoint the leak.
“There was a pipe that was broken, and it was by the diving well, basically in the location of the diving board, in the area of the rock wall, and in here is where that pipe was. The pipe goes into the pool and connected with another pipe and developed a hairline fracture,” advised Kotter.
The problem was initially noted after the pool was first filled around the third week of April. While the leak was noted well before the pool’s scheduled opening, Kotter said a delay couldn’t be avoided.
“We kept waiting and not announcing it, because we kept having faith that ACCO was going to be able to come right away and solve the issue, but like any job, you call with your issue and you get in line because other communities can have issues with their pool and everybody’s trying to open their pools,” explained Kotter.
City of Red Oak employees joined with ACCO to try and find the source of the leak. Kotter said it was a difficult process.
“We dug up one spot by the little steps that go by the shark but we found nothing. JEO Consulting Group had done the design work, so we had them send us lots of pictures from when there was no concrete on the deck yet. One of the things that helped us was that the pool was only losing a certain amount of water before it stabilized,” Kotter stated. “By knowing that, we were able to determine that wherever the leak was, it was from a pipe on or at that level.”
Additionally, the pool stabilization also allowed them to limit the potential location of the leak.
“We’d already dug up the one spot and found nothing. Our next two primary locations that the leak could potentially be from was where we actually found it was located, and the other one was on the east side by the tennis courts where the big slide comes down and you get out of the slide, right along that spot,” commented Kotter. “We were lucky that the water stabilized at a certain point, because if the pool had completely emptied, it would have been a lot harder to determine the source of the leak.
After ACCO left for the weekend, Kotter said they cleared the concrete over the two potential leak spots, and it didn’t take long for the ACCO crews to determine the leak site once the pipes were visible. Repairs were made on June 4, and the pool was filled June 5, which ended up in a nerve-wracking waiting game.
“We did feel confident that there was a good chance that that was the fix, but again, until you fill the pool again, you don’t know. So from Friday June 5 until the evening of Saturday, June 6, we spent time filling the pool again. Saturday night is when the water was full. The pool was full with water. Then we prayed overnight, and when we woke up in the morning and all day Sunday, we hadn’t lost water again, so it seems likely that was it.”
June 9, city crews laid concrete over the three spots that were dug up, and Kotter said so far, everything seems to be running well. While everything is filed and ready, there’s still some leftover tasks.
“The chemicals are in and we sent out the test to the state because there are chemical regulations. Usually it takes around a week to get the test results back, so based on when the samples were sent out, we’re anticipating we’ll get the go-head to open by June 19,” Kotter said.
Due to the delay in the opening, Kotter said there will be some modifications to the pool passes.
“We will take our $200 annual pass down to $175, and the $75 individual pass will go down to $65. So not a big reduction, but we’re just at least trying to be conscientious of the fact that it was closed for three weeks of the total season. There were about 10 to 12 people that bought their passes in advance, and they’ll get a credit for next year,” explained Kotter.
Kotter also said they got some welcome news. The owners of the Firehouse Mexican Bar and Grill were the winning bidders for the pool’s concession stand.
“We’re happy to have them on board, and that means people might see some different options at the concession stand. I just want to remind people that the concession stand is open poolside for patrons and is also open for non-pool patrons, so anyone can stop in and get food or a snack there,” stated Kotter. “It’s open both on the poolside or that just regular people, if they’re interested in getting a snack there. Yeah, that’s definitely new because the past couple of parking tree board meetings I’ve covered in order to check the minutes of, it was, well, haven’t found anybody to run our concession stand yet.
Also, the pool was able to retain all of its staff, so there will be no shortages once its open. Kotter said they were able to maintain their employment with various city projects until the pool opened. As for extending the pool season due to the delay, Kotter said it’s a consideration.
“It’ll have to be based on staffing, and that’s usually our problem. Once the high school kids go back to work or school, and the college kids have to leave town, there just isn’t anybody to staff them. There might be a chance that some of the high school kids can remain on staff if we just open the pool in the evening after school starts. If we can’t extend the hours, then the season will close around when school starts back up,” Kotter commented.
Kotter expressed her appreciation to the ACCO workers and for al the members of city staff that worked hard to make sure the Red Oak Pool would be able to open up again for patrons this summer.

Section: