Another pool closure ahead

Trust House Recreation Centre. PHOTO/PAM GRAHAM

The Trust House Recreation Centre indoor pool will be closed for two to three weeks this winter while the bracing of the air handling system above the pool is strengthened.

The outdoor lido and paddlers pool at the centre have been closed this summer, and more than a thousand people swam in Lakeview School pool when it was opened to the public during afternoons, using staff from Belgravia Leisure, who operate the recreation centre.

The work to strengthen the bracing of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning above the indoor pool is scheduled to start in July, according to an agenda for Masterton District Council’s infrastructural services committee, which met yesterday.

A council spokeswoman said the council was taking a proactive approach to strengthening the air handling system.

The work should take two to three weeks, with the project cost still to be confirmed.

The closure of the pool would allow cost savings for scaffolding, the agenda said.

Work will also start in March on repairing the hydro slide at the centre. The work is programmed to happen once the lido pool work is completed or at the end of the outdoor pool season, whichever comes first.

The contract to repair the seals and connections in the hydro slide is for $69,089 with a 15 per cent contingency. It doesn’t include work on the interior stairway. The council has a budget of $102,990 for the hydro slide repairs.

A detailed schedule of costs to redesign the drainage trenching and lining of the lido and paddling pools is being confirmed. There is provision of $250,000 in the long-term plan and a grant of $10,000 came from Trust House.

The agenda said there was minimal negative public feedback to having the outdoor lido and paddler pools unavailable for the hot, dry, summer.