YMCA shuts down indoor pool

WASHINGTON — Mere months away from its 100th anniversary on May 24, the Washington YMCA Indoor pool is now permanently closed, the organization announced Friday.

In an email, YMCA of Washington County CEO Amy Schulte said the damage from burst pipes in January was simply too much to repair without breaking the bank, at a price point of roughly $200,000, given the Y’s soon-to-open new aquatic center, a few blocks north of the old one downtown.

“The insurance proceeds will fall short of covering the extensive costs for the needed repairs and the soonest it could reopen would be mid-June,” she said. “Given that the new indoor aquatic center is on schedule to open in September of this year, it has been determined that it is in the best interest to forego any further costs related to the 1924 pool.”

Schulte said the Y extended its “sincere gratitude” to everyone who frequented the pool, now waiting for the new center to open in September.

While the news caused some disappointment in the community Friday, she said that the facility’s regular guests saw it coming.

“I think everyone had felt the inevitability,” she said. “It’s something we were truly hoping to avoid, but I think most people understand that it was just a matter of time, so I think everyone has kind of expected this announcement.”

The facility has long stood as an iconic amenity for the city of about 7,000 people. Generations of community members recall swimming at the pool with their parents, who have similar memories from their own youth. Many have marked countless laps as members of the Washington Water Sharks, the local Y’s swim team, first chartered in 1955, while others boast of the physical and social benefits of aquarobics programs at the facility.

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The amenity became something of a maintenance technician’s nightmare in its last decade of operation. Aging equipment made sudden, temporary closures more frequent than ideal.

Swimmers said the trend was frustrating, despite deeply held nostalgia for the only indoor pool in Washington County.

“Cancels of practices are always last-minute because we always hope it will be open and ready,” said Water Shark Kate Flannery, in an interview about the facility early this year.

The pool first closed its doors Jan. 2 this year, due to an unspecified equipment failure. The closure was extended “indefinitely” later that month, after freezing cold weather burst some of the building’s pipes, breaking its boiler and much of the equipment used to pump water into the pool. While some parts of the building still have heat and running water — the 1963 and ‘84 additions — Schulte said the gymnasium, pool area and old game room do not.

Repair staff on Friday said the broken pipes had flooded the entire maintenance area, destroying much of the equipment’s pre-internet repair manuals. YMCA Maintenance Director Matt Urmie and retired Facilities Director John Mangold said they were “stumped,” during an interview between tests on Friday.

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Even if boiler repairs were feasible, the maintenance workers said they couldn’t get the pool pump motor to run for more than three minutes and 21 seconds before a breaker box tripped it off. Neither could explain why.

“I’ve run this system for years and years, and I’m presently at a loss,” Mangold said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

With so many systems offline, major investments to reopen soon-to-be obsolete parts of the building are out of the question for the Y.

Still, Schulte said demolition wasn’t inevitable for the structure. The organization tentatively hopes to sell its old building to someone interested in repurposing it.

“While it might be outside of our scope to fix the building and put that cost into it … if someone has a long-term future plan for it, it may not be out of the scope,” she said. “We had someone look at it last week that is a potential buyer. I don’t think ‘demolition’ is a word that we would use right now, by any means.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com