If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Fennimore Community Pool may not have any luck at all.
The Fennimore Common Council learned during its semi-monthly meeting Monday night that the pool heater quit working last week, less than a month after the pool opened for the season.
“Last Sunday, a week ago yesterday, the pool heater went out,” Director of Public Works Dennis Biddick told the Council. “I went in there Monday morning just doing a check on things and noticed the heater wasn’t working.
“I pulled the front door off and all the burners were laying in the bottom of it. It looked just like the old pool heater did before we replaced it.”
A new pool heater was installed by Myers Mechanical Solutions in spring 2014.
“They are looking into the warranty side of it,” Biddick said. “There might be a possibility that the roof was leaking and may have caused some of the damage.”
What went wrong?
“The burner unit got really hot in there and stuff warps when it gets really hot,” Biddick said. “The burners fell out of place and melted some wires.
“Myers is going to have to diagnose it and tell us if it was a gas problem or if it was something else that could have caused it.”
Biddick told the Council he hopes to have the issue resolved by the end of this week.
“Either way they were supposed to order parts, get them here and get it installed,” he said. “Then we will work on how it is handled, whether it is warranty or insurance or whatever.”
Originally scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend, the pool opened for the 2015 season on May 28. Biddick repaired portions of the PVC piping at the perimeter of the pool last month, but mechanical issues delayed the pool’s opening.
Biddick said Monday night the pool continues to leak approximately 13,000 to 15,000 gallons of water each day.
“If it rains, it is a lot less than that, based on our consumption records,” he added.
“If we could just keep the rain water warm we would be even better,” alderperson Sara Brodt said.
The pool leaked approximately 16,000 gallons per day throughout the 2014 pool season and 18,000 gallons per day in 2013.
The Council voted unanimously last December to commit up to $1.5 million to the Fennimore Municipal Pool project.
The Fennimore Community Pool Capital Campaign Committee revealed during a Fundraising Gala in April that $250,047.33 of a $1.65 million goal has been raised for the project.
