Sunday, December 20, 2009

Pool damaged by snowstorm

I just got this email about the pool:

At about 3:00 AM we had an incident at the Pool. Due to the weight of the snow coming off of the bubble,a large amount collected on the north-west corner of the facility and collapsed a corner of the bubble. The Parks crew along with help from the Fire dept. and possibly others were able to remove thw snow but some damage was done to the emergency door,necessitating a back hoe to hold it in place. The bubble is completly inflated and as far as I know at this time is not damaged. However, the damage to the door and impact on operations,in order to fix it, probably won't be ascertained until tomorrow.

Thankfully, it happened in the middle of the night and presumably no one was hurt.

And for those of you who are concerned about the pool budget, I notice that people were working on the pool who are not part of the pool budget. In other words, will those costs be allocated to the pool budget? Have such costs been allocated to the pool budget in the past?

Tim White

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a hard boiled fiscal cosnervative, but the time is now to bite the damm bullet and fix the pool properly.

If we are going to have a year -round pool...and it appears the public wants that--then it needs a proper enclosure.

It isn't often that I agree with state senate Democrats but this might be the time to make major capital improvements as interest rates and labor costs are as low as they are going to go. Once we get the inevitable hyperinflation from trillion dollar deficits, this sort of project will become unaffordable.

Let's get it done now, folks, instead of whining forever about how lame our pool is.

Tim White said...

I expect that you'll see an enclosure go to referendum no later than November 2010.

Jimmy Sima is holding a Planning Committee meeting tomorrow night about moving forward on a pool enclosure.

FWIW, in my six years I don't recall a meeting ever being scheduled the week of Christmas. And my point is that I feel that a pool enclosure referendum is a high priority for the Council. But we also need to ensure that there is a solid number to send to referendum.

Anonymous said...

Either make it summer-only, or build a permanent structure ASAP. Let this be the last winter of the bubble!

Anonymous said...

Tim, glad to hear the Council is plowing ahead instead of kicking the can down the road!

Anonymous said...

Whoever decided that a "bubble" in New England is the best idea should be forced to live in it for a year. Any structure in New England should be able to withstand a snowfall like the one we had. The snow was light and easy to move. No Excuse.

How much did it cost for the extra manpower to rescue the pool this time? Should the pool budget be responsible for this?

Isnt this the third incident involving the pool this month?

This facility should be shuttered until a feasable alternative can be found. It appears the pool is too dangerous as of late.

Anonymous said...

When the town looks at alternative buildings for the pool, why not ask the local greenhouse farmers for their input? They already have large, clear span buildings designed to control temperature, humidity, and airflow. These guys may know a thing or two about what we should have.

This would be a way to pay homage to being "the bedding plant capital of Connecticut"

Anonymous said...

This would be a way to pay homage to being "the bedding plant capital of Connecticut"

That's exactly what Jim Sima has in mind and I think you'll be impressed with the designs when they are finalized in time for referendum.

Anonymous said...

Another fine example of a Town project being done "on the cheap." And you can't blame this one on the Dems of the TC who just finished their terms!

Anonymous said...

the bubble was the idea of the geniuses who demand an open air pool (so they can "catch rays") during the few weeks of summer we have @ 41.30 north latitude, at the expense of having a functional facility the rest of the year.

Anonymous said...

Throw the bubble away, when the water freezes....let's go ice skating!

mnj

Anonymous said...

The Hartford Civic Center collapsed in the middle of the night under the weight of a heavy snow storm. It wasn't a bubble. Big spans can be a nightmare if not properly engineered. The same could be true for a new enclosure over the pool whether it's greenhouse like or typical steel frame. The town has to have a properly engineered structure that would hold up in Alaska.

Anonymous said...

"The town has to have a properly engineered structure that would hold up in Alaska."

Call Sarah Palin - she knows it all!

Anonymous said...

Was David Schrumm on the Council when this pool was approved? Did he approve the bubble?

Anonymous said...

The pool was approved with the bubble in referendum.

Anonymous said...

There is nine people that vote on the TC. What's your point?

Anonymous said...

Yes but was David Schrumm part of the council that put the pool out referendum? The council that would have approved the design. I think that he was!

Anonymous said...

4:56 Do you know who was on the council when the plans were approved to build our schools with flat roofs?

Anonymous said...

4:56

So what's your point? The bubble is Schrumm's fault? Heck with that logic it's everyone who approved the referendum for that matter. So where do we go from there? Thank the "I told you so crowd" for their wisdom and hand them shovels to fill the pool in?

Contoured Views said...

4:56
Many of us voted in favor of the pool when we were all told that it would be self-sufficient.
Now that we are paying close to $500,000 to subsidize it, we all feel like we were sold a bill of goods.
Now we need to fix it before we get in deeper
You can blame whoever you want, but lets try to figure out why it isn't self sufficient and why they used inferior building materials during the construction. We can learn from these mistakes and hopefully move on.
Enough of blaming the council that was in place when the referendum was passed. We are in this mess because recent councils allowed us to get to this point.

tim white said...

CV... if it costs $6,000,000 ($5.4 million + 10% contingency)... would you vote in favor or against?

Contoured Views said...

Tim:
That's a difficult question to answer until we get all the facts.
What will be the permanent structures life expectancy? How much will we save in energy costs? Will we still be subsidizing it to the tune of $500,000 per year even if we do put up a permanent structure?
If the answer is that we will still have to subsidize it by that amount each year, then I would say make it a summer only pool.
I liked an idea you had stated here once before. How much to build a smaller pool attached to the school while making this a summer only pool?
This may be a time to dip into the "rainy day" fund and get this fixed.
All I know is it needs to be fixed and I like that the council is tackling it already.
Sorry I couldn't give you a more definitive answer, but I think we need some answers first.

tim white said...

Depending on cost (and I'm guessing it would be much less expensive than the current discussion), I still prefer putting a regular size pool next to CHS. But I don't see that going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

The bottom line in all this just might really be how many people use this pool and how often by season. If say 5 or 10 thousand residents of town each use the pool 10 or 15 days per year then maybe we should spend the money to upgrade it. If only a relative handful of people use it on an irregular basis maybe we only need the summer version.

I cannot remember seeing any real hard statistics on pool use which would tell everyone just how many people from town actually go to the pool and for how many times by month. Until that kind of information is widely circulated there is no way for voters to make an informed decision. It's wonderful that our town has a great high school swim team but many of the residents don't see that being a paid sports booster is the best use of our scarce tax dollars.

Breachway said...

why would more people use the pool if the structure is changed? Maybe a few more if they clean up the mold problem but probably not that many...how many people won't use the pool if they cant catch rays during the summer-probably more than would sign up with the new structure....

Anonymous said...

Why has this council not looked at a normal sized pool at the High School? It may be cheeper than the proposals.

Anonymous said...

This pool must be built over an "ancient burial ground". It has had more problems and more attention than any other project in this town. Let's hope that a reasonable solution can be found. I believe that the new TC will find one and the voters will decide once and for all.

Anonymous said...

The pool was built over the corner of a golf driving range and a chicken farm which dated back to earlier, quieter times in town.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh yes, and there was a beauty salon there too. I remember checking out the chicken coops while my mother was in the salon. Those were the good old days!

Anonymous said...

I bet the chicken coops were built better than the pool.

Anonymous said...

"I bet the chicken coops were built better than the pool."

Go ask Chapman. I think he still has some of them.

Anonymous said...

Did your mom get her hair done in the chicken coop or the salon? Are you sure there wasn't a dog pound there too?