Glenwood Aquatic Center Won't Open In 2025


The Glenwood Aquatic Center will remain closed indefinitely as the city explores its options for the 9-year-old facility that has been plagued by water loss issues.

There will be no games of Marco Polo, water walks across the lily pads or cannonballs off the diving board this summer in Glenwood.

Following the advice of the city’s engineering consultant, the Glenwood City Council has decided not to open the Glenwood Aquatic Center in 2025.

The decision was made after the council received preliminary findings of an extensive inspection conducted to determine the cause of on-going water loss issues that have plagued the 9-year-old facility for several years.

The council voted 4-0 last Tuesday to keep the aquatic center closed this summer after engineering consultant Jake Zimmerer of Eagle Engineering said opening the facility in 2025 could result in additional damage to the pool and create greater expense for the city.

Glenwood City Administrator Mitch Kolf explained the council’s decision in a written statement.

“The City of Glenwood is saddened to announce that the Glenwood Aquatic Center will not open for the 2025 summer season,” Kolf stated. “The decision to close the pool for this summer was made at the May 13th city council meeting. The pool has experienced a number of issues in recent years causing it to open late, close early, or not open at all in 2022 and now 2025. Due to these issues, the city hired a specialty pool engineering firm, Burbach Aquatics, at the end of the 2024 pool season to perform a comprehensive analysis to determine the underlying cause of the leaks. During 2024 the pool lost on average 20,000 gallons of water a day or 3.5 inches daily. The pool consultant gave a presentation to the city council at the April 29th meeting.”

Kolf highlighted the main findings of Burbach’s inspection of the aquatic center:

● Forces on the pool floor resulting from frozen subgrade has caused the floor to rise as much as two inches per winter.

● The adverse floor movement and inadequate waterproofing and structural connection between the floor and concrete footings allows water to leak at high rates.

● Water leakage at the floor joints is apparently eroding base material creating voids under the pool floor.

● Pool structure movement has caused pipe breaks and leaks.
Their recommendation:

● Continued use of the pool in its current condition will have high operation costs and increased deterioration of the pool vessel and pipe network integrity.

● The geotechnical evaluation recommendation to remedy the pool vessel structural support requires removal of up to 5 feet of existing soil under the pool. The soil should be replaced with non-frost sensitive soil.

● Given the presence of ground water an active dewatering system should be installed. A full envelope of free draining base and wall backfill is required for an effective dewatering system.

● These remedies along with an improved pool vessel structural design requires a full pool vessel replacement solution.

“Based on this information from the presentation given by Burbach the city has made the difficult decision to close the pool for this next year,” Kolf stated. “The city is awaiting the full report from Burbach and is evaluating all options at this time, with the hope of finding a quality solution to open the pool as soon as next year if possible.”

The $5 million aquatic center opened in 2016. Remaining construction debt on the facility, approximately $3.8 million in principal and interest, is scheduled to be retired in 2035. The city is using Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) dollars to pay off the debt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Opinion-Tribune

116 S Walnut St Glenwood, IA 51534-1665
P.O. Box 377, Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-527-3191
Phone: 712-623-2566
Fax: 712-527-3193

Comment Here