Wanaka Community Pool Reopening Postponed

24 Aug 2010 - Sophie

The scheduled reopening of the Wanaka Community Pool on Monday 30 August is to be postponed due to unexpected issues with the pool’s sand filter being identified during the recent pool refurbishment.

Lakes Leisure and the Queenstown Lakes District Council are currently investigating options to replace the filter before a revised opening date can be advised.

Lakes Leisure facilities manager Cam Sheppard said it was unfortunate the pool could not be reopened as originally planned.

“We had planned to carry out some maintenance work to the sand filter during the pool refurbishment however workers discovered the filter was in far worse condition than anticipated. As the cost of these repairs are extremely high, the best solution is to replace the filter altogether. Unfortunately we cannot reopen the pool until the filter is replaced and fully functioning.” Mr Sheppard said.

“We would like to assure the Wanaka community that we will work with Council to ensure the most cost effective and timely solution is applied to remedy this situation. However this may take a few more weeks than we had originally planned.

“The pool will be reopened as soon as practicable and we will advise the new reopening date as soon as we can”.

To date the refurbishment has been progressing well to do with all repainting, internal HVAC work, floor resurfacings and chlorine conversion complete. The external workings of the HVAC system which will be installed in October without any impact on the pool’s operation

The wood chip boiler project that has been funded separately from an ECCA loan will commence once potential project synergies have been explored with the Mount Aspiring College’s heating needs. This work will also take place without any operational impact for pool users.

The refurbishment at Wanaka Community Pool is part of a $345,000 upgrade to ‘futureproof’ the 18-year-old facility, following the decision to remove funding for a new swimming pool from the LTCCP.

Lakes Leisure took over the management of Wanaka Community Pool in February 2009 from the Wanaka Pool Committee. It has since increased its opening hours and the pool’s availability and now welcomes more than 2000 visitors to the pool each month.

Those with membership to Wanaka Community Pool can take advantage of free access to Alpine Aqualand during the closure. Members will also have the full closure time added to the end of their membership in compensation for the closed days.