PORT TOWNSEND — The Mountain View Pool has reopened after more than a month-long closure.
The pool, which reopened Monday at 1919 Blaine St., is operated in partnership between the City of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA.
“Once the boiler got going, it took a few days to get the water temperature back up to about 84-85 degrees,” said Michael Todd, facilities and parks manager. “We’ve got heat and the pool is warm, and we’ve got people swimming, so all is good.”
“We’re thrilled to be opening and grateful for the city’s hard work in getting the pool up and running again,” said Wendy Bart, CEO of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. “We know how important this pool is to the community. We also want to extend our gratitude to our staff and community members who provided transportation so people could use the pool at our Sequim YMCA while Mountain View was closed.”
The pool closure followed a break in a main line late in the evening of May 28. The open line’s water routed into the building’s basement, flooding as high as 3 feet.
“It was enough where the water was in the electrical panel, and at that time, the boiler control panels were about a foot off the ground, so those were completely submerged,” Todd said.
City employees, along with responders from Jefferson County PUD, turned power and water off. They returned power the next day and water to the area several days later, but the damage had been done.
The city ordered replacement parts quickly, but shipping took four weeks. Parts and labor were originally estimated at $100,000 but were adjusted to $60,000.
“This is the second time it happened,” Todd said. “The first time, I think the totals were $50-$60K, but that was also five or six years ago, so we were anticipating higher costs of parts. And the water went higher this time than the last time it flooded. It actually got into the electrical panel, where it hadn’t last time. So we were anticipating having to replace fuses in a lot more electrical work.
“After we got into it, the electrician was able to reuse a lot of the fuses, and they were able to clean up some of the buses,” Todd continued. “We were able to go through the control panel and reuse a couple of things that didn’t actually go underwater, so we brought the bill down on that.”
In the meantime, city employees got the boiler controls up off the ground, Todd said.
“Basically, we created a ladder for those to sit on, up higher than the flood level,” he said. “We don’t expect water to be above a certain height, at about 3 or 3½ feet, water starts to flow out of the basement and into the storm drain right outside.”
The pool, built in 1963, is past its infrastructural prime and has already outlived its life expectancy. Conversations are already well underway regarding a replacement, but they are still in the stage of finding a location and funding.
“I think a lot of things that are breaking now are just past repairs that were done, that were kind of bandaged back together,” Todd said. “We’re trying to repair it right. That way, we can hopefully make the pool last a little bit longer. Unfortunately, some of the piping is so old that it’s just kind of corroding away. We’re starting to see a lot of leaks underneath the pool as well.
“I think, overall, the infrastructure is past its life, so we’re just trying to keep it together as long as we can,” Todd said.
The YMCA has released its pool schedule through the end of the week and plans to release its August schedule soon. The pool is closed today and has open swim hours from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
For questions about Mountain View Pool, contact Aquatics Manager Markus Koch at markus@olympicpeninsulaymca.org or call the YMCA front desk at 360-385-5811.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
