The Houston Leisure Facility has been closed for two months since Sept. 4, 2017, and will be reopening Nov. 13, 2017.
This was a planned extended annual shutdown as the District of Houston has been budgeting funds for the past 10 years to finance large upgrades, repairs, and renovations to revitalize the facility.
At the Nov. 7, 2017 District of Houston council meeting, mayor Shane Brienen asked how the progress of renovations and upgrades were going.
Tasha Kelly, manager of leisure services for the District of Houston, said, “As we expected with construction, we had some hiccups. Luckily during this shut down we ran into some maintenance items that have been discontinued when we have gone to order them or replace them, so we had to switch gears on a couple of projects in order to ensure that they were going to last us the next 10 years or switch to use something different so that we don’t run into problems in the future.”
Kelly added that an epoxy coat has be applied to the back chemical room, to ensure the longevity of that area from exposure to hydrochloric acid and other harsh chemicals.
“Silicone has been installed into the floor of main pool,” said Kelly.
The floor and side grates of the main, leisure, and swirl pool have also been replaced. And refilling the pools has started since Nov. 8, 2017.
Kelly says that circulating the heating for the pools will begin Friday morning on Nov. 10, 2017 so that the pool will be operational Nov. 13, 2017.
Lights inside the facility have been replaced to be more energy efficient. Kelly added that the beams have been grounded, epoxied, and refinished. Replacement of tiles has been completed and the windows have been replaced and completed.
“Even though we are a week behind [shutdown was extended for an additional week due to delivery issues of parts], we have made up a lot of ground in the last week,” said Kelly.
Kelly said that there will be a couple of other projects that will continue after shutdown when the facility reopens, including programming the direct digital control system, which Kelly says needs to be programmed after the water in the pools have started circulating.