Paul Reynolds Community Centre pool to close again — for nearly two months
Repairs to air handling unit necessary to prevent condensation, corrosion
The pool at the Paul Reynolds Community Centre in St. John's will be closed for a large chunk of the fall season.
It will be the third time in less than a year that the two-year-old pool will be unavailable to the public for an extended period of time.
"I'm just shocked that they're closing yet again. My daughter absolutely loves it there, so it's pretty disappointing that they're shut down for two months," said Janine Jackson, who frequents the swimming pool with her two young children.
A notice on the City of St. John's website indicates the pool will be closed for scheduled maintenance from Sept. 1 to Oct. 26. Previous closures this past spring and winter were due to unplanned or emergency maintenance.
Jackson's daughter missed out on three swimming lessons during one of those shutdowns, she said.
"For a brand-new building, to be closed three times now for long periods of time … it's definitely strange that they have to fix things so often," Jackson said.
She's disappointed that she will now have to travel well outside her neighbourhood to go for a swim this fall.
Condensation, corrosion
According to St. John's Mayor Danny Breen, this time the pool is closing for necessary repair work to the pool's air handling unit.
The last time the pool was closed for repairs, in mid-May, it was because of mechanical problems related to that particular piece of equipment — the device that regulates and circulates air.
That unexpected issue prompted the city to hire outside-the-province consultants to look more closely at the issue.
Breen said Monday a consultant hired by the city identified the problem and said the work needed to get done.
"We've had problems in some cases with some condensation in the pool area causing corrosion," Breen said. "It's certainly work that needs to be completed, so we wanted to have it done as quickly as possible."
The city will be offering additional swimming lessons at the H.G.R. Mews Community Centre based on available pool capacity, but Breen said some people who work part-time at the Paul Reynolds swimming pool will be out of work in the interim.
"We don't want to have to reduce their number of hours, but the work that has to be done there, has to be done," he said.
The mayor said contractors will work to minimize the disruption and get the pool reopened as soon as possible.
"We never want to see the centre closed," said Breen. "But we have to make sure that the work is completed so that the pool is running correctly."
It is not clear if the work is covered under warranty. When the pool was forced to close in May, St. John's city councillor Jamie Korab insisted these issues are not unusual, despite the facility — and the pool — opening just two years ago.
"With any major building, with any multimillion-dollar project … there are unfortunately incidents that happen, whether it be mechanical or whether it be other things in the building that unfortunately sometimes will cause delays. It's not uncommon," he said.