Concrete work to start soon at Civic Center site
As it begins to look like summer outside, the crater of earth behind the Gilmer County Civic Center is beginning to look like a swimming pool (again).
That will be even more true after the first pouring of concrete at the site, which is expected to be done this week if weather allows.
“(First), we’re going to pour shotcrete in the deep well where the diving well is. They’re wrapping up all the rebar right now,” said Steven Weaver, project manager.
The county hired contractor Aqua Design Systems, of Fayetteville, to construct the new pool last November. The company submitted a project bid of $2.9 million.
The pool construction has been moving quickly toward its final stages the past few weeks with installation of pipe and electrical wiring among the tasks to complete. The lap pool, the site’s biggest swimming area, is about 90 percent finished, while the kiddie pool section is 80-90 percent done, noted Weaver.
“A lot is going on right now. Basically, there’s four different events or sections going in out there — the lap pool, the kiddie pool, the diving well and the slide area,” he added. “Right now, we’ve got so many pipes going in, and we’re going ahead with the deep well. There’s (about) 30 pipes that have to be put in underground and hooked to a header.”
It was initially hoped that the new pool would be finished by the end of this month, but now it’s looking more like mid-July for a finish date, said Weaver. Wet weather has played a big part in the pool construction, which began in March after months of preparation work at the site, taking longer than anticipated, he noted.
“The weather has just been horrendous on us this year,” Weaver said. “The biggest problem was preparing to build the pool. You had to dig out the old pool, get all the junk out of there and reshape it. A lot of it has been remediation, which all had to be done before you could start putting in a (new) pool.”
After the deep well is concreted, the lap pool and kiddie pool sections will be poured next. The entire concrete pouring and curing process could take around three weeks to a month.
“The long cure will be 27 days, but the shotcrete will be (ready in) two or three days. They’ll be troweling and smoothing it out the next day,” Weaver said.
The site layout will also feature a large gathering area where teens and others can congregate.
“Before (in the design) it was just a grassy area, but we’ve added a couple more yards of concrete,” Weaver said. “Because there’s not that much room up near the building where the parents are going to be, this will give the teenagers a place to go and be on their own.”
Weaver said the pool site has undergone regular inspections by county environmental health and city code enforcement and will have to undergo final inspections before opening.
“We just had a major inspection last Thursday when the architect from St. Louis came out and looked at it and reviewed everything,” said Weaver. “Up to this point, there have been different stages that had to be inspected. The rebar and the wire had to be inspected. Environmental health had to come out and inspect pressure on the lines. There’s a lot of inspections going on to check and make sure (everyone’s) doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Jody Cantrell, Gilmer County’s new parks and recreation director, said he doesn’t have any details at this time about the start or close of the pool’s first season. It’s usually open Memorial Day week through Labor Day.
Cantrell did say the rec. department will be hiring a pool manager and lifeguards (both seasonal positions) in advance of the new facility opening for its first season.