After a marathon five hour plus meeting, the Seal Beach City Council deferred a vote on what to do about the old and leaking pool and the public tennis courts at McGaugh Elementary School. The School district wants to turn the tennis courts into a parking lot, but selling the entire corner where the pool and tennis courts are located to the city is also a possibility.
Although the pool and tennis courts are on property owned by the Los Alamitos Unified School District, the district does not operate them. The city uses the facilities for a variety of Parks and Recreation Department activities.
The problem is, the pool is leaking water—lots of water. Nobody seems to know exactly how much, but it is a lot. So much so, that early in the discussion, Councilman Gordon Shanks put forward a motion to demolish the pool and be done with it. The motion was seconded by Councilman Charles Antos, but then a discussion ensued.
Shanks based his motion on the idea that the city cannot justify asking people to cut back on water use while at the same time, wasting water on the pool. So, how much water is being wasted? Previously, see related article below, the city reported the pool was leaking about 42 gallons PER MINUTE. That was just a quick estimate based on clocking the meter. Now, the city has given it a little more thought and looked at the meter records.
Based on meter records, the city now says the pool is losing about 10,000 gallons per day. Still a lot of water, but far less than the first estimate, which is over 60,000 gallons per day. But, even the lower number might not be an accurate measurement of leakage because some water would be lost due to normal evaporation. Presumably, somebody will go back to their desk and factor that into the determination of the amount lost due to leakage.
As the tide in the council chambers looked like it might be heading to a vote calling for demolition of the pool, Councilman Gary Miller spoke up and changed the direction. Miller’s message was essentially that the city should have a pool, and should not get rid of the one at McGaugh until there is another solid option—the proverbial bird in the hand, verses bird in the bush scenario.
A few members of the public spoke up expressing support for the city having a pool and challenging the emergency nature of the leak situation. If a lot of the daily 10,000 gallon water loss can be attributed to normal evaporation, there might not even be a water wasting emergency. Nobody at the meeting expressed any support for the idea of the city not having a pool. If the McGaugh pool must go, the sense at the council meeting was that there needs to be a replacement.
The McGaugh pool is about 50 years old and it needs some major work. Plus, codes have changed since it was first built and if the city undertook major plumbing repairs, numerous other upgrades would probably be required. The city hired a consulting firm to study the situation and provide recommendations. The results of that study were presented at Monday’s council meeting.
There were four options presented, ranging from the cheapest—complete demolition and replacement with flat ground, to a complete remodel, the most costly option. The kid’s pool, aka the “Special Use Pool, would be demolished and not replaced in all of the options presented. The staff report states “The two pools share every aspect of the water treatment system, which is a violation of the current State Health Code…any major pipe replacement will require a separate recirculation system for both the special use pool and the main pool. This modification cannot be done due to added equipment in the pump room. The added equipment physically cannot fit in the existing pump room, as there is not enough square footage.”
Each option also includes installation of the now required anti-suction drains, also called anti-entrapment drains. Installation of these safety drains will be required by July 1, of this year, even if nothing else is done.
According to the city’s staff report, “It is the opinion of City staff and the City’s pool consultant, Mr. Cannon, that the entire piping system of the pool is past its useable life. The current pipe being used is cast iron pipe that was originally installed when the pool was built in approximately 1964.”
Thus, repair option 1 is to replace this pipe. The estimated cost for this option, including demolishing the Special Use Pool and installing the anti-suction drains, is $331,250.
That, of course, is only the beginning. Staff reported at the meeting that the pump equipment is also past its useful life and needs replacement. There was some challenge to this conclusion by members of the public speaking at the meeting. The report indicates the current pump system does not have the capacity needed to get the required circulation of the water.
But, that conclusion was based on the volume of both pools. The consultant said the existing pump would be very close to hitting the volume needed for only the main pool. Since there seems to be no viable alternative to demolition of the Special Use Pool, the existing pup might work for a while longer.
If the cost of replacing the above ground mechanical and electrical systems is added to the costs for option 1, the cost for option 2 jumps up to about $842,500. Add a new deck, and we have option 3, a total cost of $1,306,250.
The last option, number 4, is the complete Demolition. “This option will completely demolish pools, pump room, restore the site to a level ground; and, turn the site over to the District.” The cost for this option is $202,950.
City staff recommends option 2, “This option is the most preferred. New equipment and new pipes should insure a longer life span of the pool.”
But, at the end of the night—about 11:00 PM–the council asked City Manager David Carmany to come back with more information at the next meeting. Yesterday He told www.OC180NEWS.com “We’ll be back with a report about the extent of the immediate repairs, the rate of the water loss, as well as some of the options that might be available, such as completely rebuilding on that site, or the site that is presently owned by Exxon Mobil, that the Parks and Recreation Commission had previously identified as the number one location.”
Carmany continued “The council designated $5 million out of the general fund reserves toward the ultimate replacement of the pool.” But, Carmany indicated this probably would not be enough to buy land plus build a new pool.
Another possibility Carmany will look into is the current site, either buying it from the school district, or a use agreement. Buying the land from the school district would have the advantage of removing any construction from the jurisdiction of the Division of State Architect, whose approval is required for work on school property.
Carmany said “A purchase was one of the things the council asked us to broach with them {the school district}.”
Yesterday Dr. Gregory Franklin, Superintendant of the Los Alamitos Unified School District, told www.OC180NEWS.com the idea of selling the pool and tennis court property to the city “hasn’t been discussed, but we’re open to exploring all kinds of options. Our board hasn’t considered it and there hasn’t been any discussion with the city, but if the city thought that would help the situation, we would take a look at that.”
The district had planned to replace the tennis courts with more parking spaces. But Franklin said “We would do it if we had the opportunity, but we don’t think public parking trumps community recreation.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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