SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - Schuylkill Haven Area School District is planning to spend "in the neighborhood of $50,000" to repair cracked tiles in and near the pool at its high school natatorium, according to district Superintendent Lorraine Felker.
The district is collecting sealed bids for the high school natatorium repairs until 1 p.m. Aug. 7. The school board is hoping to hire a contractor at its next regular meeting, slated for 7 p.m. Aug. 13, Felker said.
This will be the first time the district has had to repair the tiles at the natatorium, which was built along with the high school building in 1970, Felker said.
"Not bad," Scott Buffington, district athletic director, said.
As children splashed about in the 115,000-gallon pool Tuesday morning, Felker, Sarah Jones, the pool director, and Joel Gipe, the district's assistant maintenance work coordinator, pointed to cracked tiles and sections of missing tiles which need to be replaced.
"We've done an excellent job of maintaining, so we have not been replacing. Now, we're going to be proactive. We don't want to just let it go. Our concern is, what if there are cracks. If we let it go, and there are cracks, what if those cracks start to fill up with water and it gets down in underneath, then there will be much more serious structural damage and then it's going to become a much more expensive proposition," Felker said.
As Felker walked along the northwest edge of the pool, she pointed to an area near the marker indicating where the depth is 5 feet.
"It's just missing tiles. It's not even severe damage, but you can see the spots where the tiles are missing," Jones said.
Then she pointed to the lower section of a wall bordering the walkway alongside the pool on the northeast section of the natatorium, near a marker indicating where the depth of the pool is 11 feet, 9 inches.
There were sections of tiles which cracked and are falling apart. Some were near the steel beams which were part of the building.
"The problems over here seem to be where the steel beams are. That would make sense with the expansion and contraction. Think about it. If this is 45 years old and you have this steel beam, which is going to be expanding and contracting differently from the cinder block with all the temperature changes, and this pool is always very humid and warm, so you would expect that after 45 years we'd have to do a little bit of work on it," Felker said.
The school board hoping the contractor can do the repairs in the first two or three weeks in September.
"The fall swim season is really not part of PIAA, so that's the slowest time for the pool," Felker said.
Felker was not sure of the total cost of the project, because she wasn't sure if the contractors would find further problems with the pool.
"Once they drain the pool, they're going to go through the whole thing to see if there is any other damage or if any other tiles need to be replaced," Felker said.
More than 2,000 people attended the dedication of the $3,254,786 Schuylkill Haven Area High School building on Sunday, Sept. 27, 1970, according to newspaper's archives.
"The Olympic size pool has two diving boards. The pool is 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. There are six lanes. The three- and one-meter fiberglass diving boards are each 16 feet long," according to an article published in The Pottsville Republican Sept. 28, 1970, edition.