St. John’s and Mount Pearl swim clubs rescue CBS swimmers left high and dry by pool closure
By Craig Westcott
A crack in the floor of the deep end of the CBS swimming pool is the cause of the facility’s unexpected closure this past month, but swimming lessons that were supposed to have started by now, won’t be cut in terms of hours, says councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett.
The pool closed January 10.
“Our staff was noticing that the pool was losing an extensive amount of water each day,” said Barrett, who chairs council’s recreation committee. “So we brought in a team of divers and outside contractors and did a lot of testing just to see what the situation was and through the jigs and the reels we came to realize there is a leak in one of the expansion joints located in the bottom of the deep end of the pool, which of course required us to drain the pool, check on some of the infrastructure, remove the tile, and (replace) the old expansion joint.”
Barrett said it’s a bit of a process.
Repairs were expected to begin January 22.
“We hope that will be done as quickly as we can, but we also recognize the material used to replace that takes about two to three days to dry,” Barrett noted. “Once it’s dried, once its saved and sealed correctly we can begin to refill the pool and double check and triple check that the leak is fixed. We are obviously hopeful to open the pool as soon as possible but at this point we need to see how the next few days go and try filling up the pool gradually to see if the leak is addressed.”
Barrett said winter swimming lessons at the pool will start once the pool is repaired and nobody’s hours will be shorted because of the closure.
Mayor Darrin Bent, meanwhile, thanked the swimming clubs in St. John’s and Mount Pearl for making time available for members of the CBS Silhouettes Synchronized Swimming Club and the Blue Fin Club to train for upcoming competitions while their own facility is out of operation.
“And for the 500 and some people in lessons (at the CBS pool), all we can do apologize and work as diligently as possible,” Bent added. “I can assure you that we are doing that, and we’ll hopefully have good news sooner rather than later.”