PORT ANGELES — The newly renovated William Shore Memorial Pool will reopen Aug. 13, a week later than planned — but still in time for the Aug. 20 start of swim practice for the Port Angeles High School girls swim team, pool Executive Director Steve Burke said.
Burke gave pool district Commissioners Mike Chapman, Mike Doherty, Brad Collins and Patrick Downie a progress report on the $323,000 face-lift Tuesday at the regular pool district commission meeting.
Chapman and Doherty are also Clallam County commissioners, and Collins and Downie serve on the Port Angeles City Council.
A grand-opening celebration and 50th anniversary for the facility at 225 E. Fifth St. in Port Angeles — the city’s only public pool — is slated for an as-yet-unscheduled Sunday in September, Burke said.
The festivities will include appearances by members of the William Shore family and others who were instrumental in getting the facility built five decades ago.
The pool shut down for renovation June 29.
Electrical work
But a delay in completing electrical work — the pool’s overhead lights arrived later than anticipated — coupled with humid weather is stretching the project a week beyond the Aug. 5 target date for reopening, Burke said.
The pool will be painted beginning Monday and will take 10 days to cure, he said.
“If we don’t let the paint cure enough, it will just pop and peel and be back in the same situation it was before,” he said.
“This way, we will not be having to drain it for probably at least two years and not have to paint it for another four. If we do it right, it lasts quite awhile.”
Plumbing system
Pressure-testing of the pool’s plumbing system was to begin Wednesday and the light fixtures installed above the pool this week, Burke said.
New piping, conduits, electrical panels, domestic water systems, toilets and lockers have been installed and the interior walls painted, he said.
New tiling still is being worked on, and new counters should arrive in August, he said.
“We are pretty much brand-new, short of the cement of the pool,” Burke said.
Workers also have removed 52 tons of metal piping from the facility.
“To say the least, we’ve had a lot of changes in the last 30 days,” Burke said.
“We’ve cleared a lot of storage space,” he added.
“We’ve been going to the dump a lot.”
Burke added that a part-time janitor will be hired for about 20 hours, which should improve the quality and consistency of maintenance of the facility and improve staff morale.
The staff, he said, “got hired on to be lifeguards, not to clean toilets.”
In other action at the meeting, Anna Minaldi, former executive director of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts in Port Angeles, was named to a three-year term on the pool district advisory committee.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
