The problems that have plagued the pool at Michael J. Tully Park are persisting, as a 10-day period of repairs to the pool has been extended indefinitely.
Initially, Town of North Hempstead officials said the pool would be closed in mid-January to repair leaks in the liner of the pool in the newly renovated Aquatic Center. Then the reopening date of Jan. 25 was changed to Feb. 7, but the pool still isn’t ready for use.
A spokesman for the town said repairmen discovered that the drains in the pool were faulty and needed to be removed and reinstalled.
“We had to make sure those drains were working before we let anybody in there,” said a Town of North Hempstead source. “We’ve got to get this right. We can’t open the pool until the drains are functioning properly.”
The town is now giving Feb. 18 as the new target date for reopening the pool.
“The pool liner company retained by subcontractors to the town was not available to complete their work prior to the date set for the pool to be re-opened. They will continue working on the project again on Feb. 9,” said Town of North Hempstead spokesman Collin Nash. “Unfortunately, the parks department will not be able to begin filling the pool until Feb. 13. It takes a couple of days to fill the pool and then several days for the water to be ready for swimming. The pool is now scheduled to be open on Feb. 18,” said Town of North Hempstead spokesman Colin Nash.
Nash said residents of the town who have already purchased subscriptions for the first session will get credit for upcoming sessions.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate because the community does use the pool,” said Marianna Wohlgemuth, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association. “I hope that it can be repaired, that there is a solution.”
The pool has been reopened on Oct. 9 following an 18-month period of repairs to fix a problem with the pool’s filtration system and extensive repairs to the recreation center that were not anticipated at the time. The concrete poured for the new pool reportedly had to be redone due in part because of the building resettling.
“We wanted to build a facility that would stand for a long time,” Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said at the time.
The projected cost of repairs on the facility undertaken by the Town of North Hempstead was $12.7 million, but the litany of structural problems not anticipated pushed the final figure to $14 million, according to official sources.
