Bad news for those who were looking forward to taking a dip in the Enumclaw pool next month — the pool is now expected to stay closed until 2021.

This is the second time the pool’s reopening date has had to be pushed back. It was first scheduled to reopen in September 2020 after a month-long closure in August for some repairs and upgrades, like a new diving board and climbing wall.

However, September came and went as contractors noticed some additional issues with the pool deck and the plaster lining the inside of the pool itself. This pushed the re-opening date out to early November.

Additional issues with the pool now have the likely reopening date set for January 2021, said Michelle Larson, the city of Enumclaw’s parks and recreation director.

“In a nutshell, when they were preparing the deck for the new surfacing, there was a lot of corrosion in electrical raceways and pipes and drains that were exposed,” she said in an Oct. 21 interview. “And also, when they were removing the old plaster in the pool, they came across some cracks… in the shell of the pool.”

Thankfully, Larson continued, the cracks aren’t huge.

“It’s not structurally falling apart,” she said. “But what they do need to do is put some kind of epoxy in it to make sure it’s sealed off before they put the new plaster over it.”

The electrical corrosion isn’t a big deal either; according to Larson, there are a number of outlets around the pool that both don’t work and are not necessary for pool operations, so contractors will be rewiring the raceways to make those outlets safe.

The corroded drains, however, could be a different story. Larson said the drains were so corroded and clogged that contractors were unable to get cameras down into them, let alone clean them, so it’s likely these pipes will have to be replaced.

The electrical work and fixing the cracks in the pool shell should incur minimal costs, Larson continued, but the outlook on the drainage work is unknown.

“We don’t know the extent of that yet. We don’t know the cost,” Larson said, adding that these projects must be tackled before finally getting to the pool plaster and deck. “We don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

The cost of this pool project has increased from $635,000 to $675,000, back when the pool was scheduled to open in November. At that time, Larson said she expected the total cost to be around $700,000, but that is likely an outdated figure now.

About $400,000 of the project’s cost is covered by grants given to Enumclaw.

PASSHOLDERS GET EXTENSION

One thing Larson wanted to make sure folks knew was that anyone who bought a pool pass for the time the pool was closed will get an extension.

“We closed March 16, so if we stayed closed until January, they’ll be extended almost 10 and a half months,” Larson said. “I know a lot of regular pass holders were asking that.”