Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore supported a partnership with South Coast Community Aquatics in Brookings to give Del Norters a place to swim while the Fred Endert Municipal Pool undergoes renovations starting next month.

But he said he was apprehensive about committing $35,000 toward the arrangement without having a better sense of how many people would actually be willing to swim in an outdoor swimming pool from December through February.

“When we talked about this initially with the extended closure we talked about how we were going to do some cost adjustments whether that is to not renew people’s passes or give them that extra period of time that we’re closed — are we still going to do that?” Inscore asked city staff Monday. “What if a person goes up and goes for a couple of times and realizes it’s not warm enough [or] it’s too far? How are we going to track that for a person who tries this and it doesn’t work for them and other people are now getting a three-month, four-month bump on their annual pass?”

Despite his misgivings, Inscore and three other members of the Crescent City Council approved partnering with South Coast Community Aquatics to offer the Brookings pool to patrons while Crescent City’s facility is undergoing renovation. Councilor Jason Greenough was absent.

Under the agreement, SCCA will pay for maintaining the Brookings pool, which includes the costs to keep it heated to about 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Crescent City would provide the lifeguards and supervisors to staff the pool from December through February. According to Crescent City Manager Eric Wier, the city expects to incur roughly $35,000 in expenses and receive about $5,000 in revenue.

Since Oct. 21, SCCA has sold 56 passes to Crescent City and Brookings residents, organization president Val Early told councilors on Monday. This includes 10 passes that are good for multiple months, she said.

Meanwhile, 15 senior passes have been purchased as of last week, Early said, citing information she received from Crescent City Aquatics Supervisor Alicia Garcia. Ten to 13 annual passes were also sold, Early said.

According to her, a total of about 86 people have signed up to swim at the Brookings pool while the Crescent City facility is closed.

“Alicia and her team did a great job of putting a thermometer up at the pool to get people to sign up online so we could gauge how much interest we had from both communities,” Early said. “It was our feeling between both the Crescent City team and SCCA that we needed to have a minimum number to make the collaboration a successful endeavor. We set the minimum number at 50.”

Siena Worthey, another SCCA board member, said the organization has received feedback from about 40 people who said they’re excited to use the facility though they couldn’t commit to purchasing a pass.

The Del Norte Healthcare District is also continuing to offer passes to local residents, Garcia said.

“We tried to serve as many community members as we could from offering lap swims and open swim times. There will also be aerobics classes and we’re offering group lesson opportunities as well,” she said. “We have a variety of programs and a lot of open recreation swims. That was pushed by both teams and especially the Brookings community who wanted to make sure everyone was able to be served.”

In answer to Inscore’s question about trying to accommodate those who decide swimming in an outdoor pool in the middle of winter isn’t for them, Wier said they would be given an extension on their annual pass.

“For the person who uses it once or twice and says it isn’t for me, we’ll work with them and have them buy the daily rate so they’ll pay for their usage there at the Brookings pool,” Wier said.

Meanwhile Dan Brattain, another SCCA Board member, said the organization would commit to evaluating the agreement after the first month.

“If this doesn’t work after the first month, we all agree that we don’t have to continue it for two more months,” he said. “We’ll look at this on a month-by-month basis. I don’t think anybody on this team is committed to three months if it doesn’t work.”

The Fred Endert Municipal Pool was initially scheduled to close from December through February for upgrades to its HVAC system, deck and locker room floors. However, Tuesday’s bomb cyclone and atmospheric river event sped up that closure when winds blew out a window at the facility, sending shards of glass into the pool.

According to Wier, the city will have to drain the pool to make sure all the glass is removed. While the facility was going to be closed for Thanksgiving, the plan had been to reopen it for a few days before the construction project starts. But refilling the pool, balancing the chemicals and heating it to 83 degrees takes about three to five days at a minimum, he said.

The HVAC and flooring projects start Dec. 2.