Municipal officials last week approved an approximately $50,000 contract with a Bethel-based company to help assure the continuous operation of the popular town pool at Waveny Park.
Purchase of a second main pump for the Steve Benko Pool will make the facility “a much better place as far as I’m concerned,” according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe.
“It will allow me to sleep,” Howe told members of the Board of Selectmen at their Feb 25 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
He continued: “What this is, a few years ago, we were able to buy a second main pump. We have one pump that filters all the water. If that goes offline for any reason, we have to close the pool. We have to have constant filtration in order for the pool to stay open. What we’re proposing is to have the second pump that we already own installed next to it. So we’ll have two pumps there. Only one will run at a time. But if we have a problem with one, we’re still running the second one. So for me, it’s going to help with sleepless nights. Because if the pump shuts off, it will probably be about three days to switch it out.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of a $49,400 with J & J Pool and Concrete Service LLC for the pump installation.
Murphy Carroll asked whether the town had already purchased a spare pump and Howe said yes, but it’s sitting at J & J and requires installation.
“They have to remove all the piping, redo the concrete pad and everything else,” Howe said. “There is one other little thing that they’re going to do—there’s a leak in the filtration room, I believe it’s an 8-inch pipe that needs to be replaced. So that’s included in that [total].”
The selectmen asked how much the pump itself cost (about $25,000), how old the pump is (21 years), how old is the secondary pump New Canaan purchased (brand new), whether the pumps are covered (yes they’re inside the pool building), whether there’s an alarm if a pump goes down (yes) and whether the pump is paid for out of the pool enterprise fund (yes).
Carlson said, “It’s really a pain that it’s twice as much to install it as it is to buy the pump.”
Murphy Carroll said she’s seen “a marked improvement” in the cleanliness of the water at the pool.
Howe said the town is doing a “better job with vacuuming.”
“We have a robot vacuum, but there’s times that we need people in there to actually vacuum it,” he said. “We hire J and J Pool. They built the pool and their guys will come down in the evening, depending on the pressure to do the manual vacuuming that we also need. As far as the buildings and the bathrooms itself, we’ve changed the cleaning company that’s there. During busy times, we have somebody there all day. So they’re constantly checking the bathrooms to make sure they stay clean.”