Norwin considers hiring consultant for pool repairs, updates

Norwin School District may hire a swimming pool consultant from Lancaster to outline it options and cost estimates for repairing and updating the high school pool to bring it up to modern standards.

The school board could vote to hire Wallover Architects Inc. on Aug. 19 to provide the cost estimates for what work can be done to repair and update the 50-year-old pool. Wallover is proposing to do the professional work for $6,150, with the total cost not to exceed $7,000.

Based on Wallover’s assessment of the swimming pool and associated amenities such as locker rooms, company President Edwin Wallover told the school board in June Norwin should either fix the 50-year-old pool area so it meets current standards or should replace the swimming pool. Among the deficiencies Wallover found were decay in the ceiling, cloudiness in the water, inadequate lighting, a crack in the pool floor and locker rooms not meeting standards for access by the disabled.

“We can’t afford a new pool,” Director Tracey Czajkowski said Monday at the school board workshop meeting.

A new ceiling also would be expensive, costing “well into the six figures,” meaning more than $100,000, Czajkowski said.

During the summer, when the pool was drained for annual maintenance, Czajkowski said tiles were regrouted, cracks were sealed and rust was removed from fixtures. The maintenance work was more thorough than usual, Czajkowski said.

Wallover was hired in May to conduct a feasibility of the pool facility, including associated areas like the heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as the pump system.

Wallover had not specified how long it would take to produce the rehabilitation analysis and the cost estimates, school officials said.