Thumbnail photo courtesy of Andrew Goff
“Cannonball Chaos” will reign supreme when the Fred Endert Municipal Pool reopens on March 22.
There will be contests, games and giveaways, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the facility’s new flooring and heating systems. But the pool’s three-month closure this winter revealed a problem — actual rain was getting inside the building. Crescent City Public Works Director David Yeager blamed it on seagulls.
“We’ve had the roofer up there a couple times and the thought is what’s going on is we’ve got about 150 holes in the roof and they’re very small and so the water only comes through after long periods of rain,” he told councilors on Monday. “It rains a little bit, sheds off and gets trapped between the membrane, but it basically has become completely saturated under the shingles and the plastic there. If you get enough water it will actually create a little bit of pressure and come through the membrane.”
After Yeager showed them pictures of stains on the pool deck, the vent belonging to the new HVAC system and streaking on the freshly painted mural, councilors allowed him to proceed with seeking a contractor to replace the roof.
The plan is to replace the 9-year-old asphalt shingle roof with a standing seam metal roof, according to Yeager’s staff report. The wastewater treatment plant and laboratory and the Cultural Center already have similar roofs, he said.
The public works director estimated that it would take about six to eight weeks to find a contractor for the project.
Once the city finds a contractor and the City Council approves the project, replacing the roof will take about two weeks of dry weather, City Manager Eric Wier said. He told Redwood Voice Community News that the roof replacement likely wouldn’t take place until July or August.
Water dripping into the pool from the ceiling wasn’t unusual, Wier said. It had been written off as condensation since the building was without a dehumidification system. But the pool had been drained during the HVAC and flooring replacement project from December through February and water was still getting in, Wier said.
“We discovered this was a bunch of little pinholes in the roof, it was not like it was one roof leak,” he told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. “These are tiny little pin holes that drip every so often.”
According to Yeager, Crescent City installed the pool roof about nine years ago. He showed councilors a photo of the roof dotted with seagull droppings and said the droppings were eating away the membrane that holds gravel on the shingles in place.
Rain washes the gravel away leaving behind bare patches, he said.
Yeager also pointed to moss-like material on the roof.
“What that is is the sand is gone and the tar is gone and the birds are pecking into it, whether nest building or why they’re doing it — who knows,” he said. “The county’s come forth and told us the same thing is happening to their building on 8th Street. The old veterans building has the same problem with the seagulls. Somebody even said the seagulls like the sand for their dietary needs.”
A standing seam roof will last about 25 to 30 years in a coastal climate, Yeager said. The total cost for replacing the roof, which includes replacing the roof sheathing, is anticipated to be $260,000, he said.
According to Wier, Measure S dollars may be used to pay for that project. He pointed out that there was no danger to the public as a result of the leaks.
“It’s really drips and it [looks] a lot like condensation,” he said. “We probably had this for the last couple of years during these rain events.”
Meanwhile, the City Council also approved budget adjustments for the HVAC and flooring replacement projects at the pool. According to Yeager, the city had gone over budget on the HVAC project by about $4,000.
The original contract with ACGC for the HVAC replacement project was about $1.2 million with an additional $120,000 for contingency. According to Yeager, $123,898 was used for contingency. About $51,000 went toward repairing wood rot and $37,000 went toward replacing the water heater, according to Yeager’s staff report.
As for the floor replacement project, the original contract with Specialty Flooring was for $269,837 with an additional $15,000 for contingency. According to Yeager, the city spent a total of $19,102 in contingency. Much of that contingency was used to install epoxy layered coating in the shower walls, according to Yeager.
The city had also set aside about $56,000 to do smaller maintenance projects and included about $50,000 in additional contingency. The city only spent $12,000 of that $50,000 contingency set-aside, according to Yeager.
Yeager asked Councilors to take some of the money from the unspent contingency for the smaller maintenance projects to cover the overages for the flooring and HVAC portions.
According to Wier, the original plan was for the pool to reopen on Saturday, but now the big grand opening is at noon on March 22.
“The delay was caused by a part for the boiler,” he said. “When the boiler came in it was plumb for natural gas. We needed it to be plumbed for propane and so that part was shipped and we’ll be operational, we’re hoping, maybe as soon as not next week, but the week after and we’ll be able to fire everything up and hit the opening date of March 22.”
Wier urged the City Council to bring families and friends and said he may ask councilors to be cannonball judges.
Wier said he would also bring a report back to the City Council on its partnership with South Coast Community Aquatics, which offered its pool in Brookings during the closure in Crescent City.
