Archive: Sports

Lansing Superintendent of Schools Chris Pettograsso told the Board of Education Monday that the Lansing High School pool is likely to be closed for yet another summer.  After years of remediating what may have been shoddy work, the pool was finally reopened last August.  But Pettograsso says that a new construction project may force the pool to be closed for the summer, even though no work is being done on the pool itself.

"Again, we're worried about our pool being open for the summer, which was a big disappointment for us," she said. "It was the one thing we wanted to make sure of, because it's been a couple of years since we've been able to offer summer programming in-house."

The High School pool was closed for reconstruction in 2013, then reopened. In 2016 school officials decided to add some upgrades to the pool, to be included in what they called the SMART (Security, Mechanical, Architecture, Reconstruction, Technology) capital project. But by winter it was apparent that there were serious problems. A 'forensic investigation' found that tile installed in 2013 was 'tenting'. In other words, tiles were not adhering to the bottom of the pool.

The new construction included a UV system that reduces the amount of chlorine needed to kill bacteria was installed, and a pool cover added. New starting blocks and diving boards were installed, and a new sound system for announcing meets. All the plumbing and the pool deck were repaired. The pool has been refinished with marcite, a kind of plaster used in pools that had been used before the tile was installed. Black tile lines were placed along the bottom of the marcite pool to help denote the lanes.

This summer new construction on the three main school buildings is the culprit behind the possible pool closing.

"The power is going to be out for a significant amount of time," Pettograsso said.  "Between the power outages and some removal of asbestos and other different things, we just might not have the ability.  I'm hopeful.  We just don't know the timeline.  It's about when materials come in and we can get moving on things.  So we just don't know and we're waiting until the very last minute to make decisions."

Pettograsso said that the summer basketball program is also in jeopardy because of summer construction.

"It is a huge program," she said. "The Elementary School gym is off limits because we're redoing the floor and having hoops put in.  The High School is off for a period of time, and the Middle School, too, because they're doing a partition there.  When you don't have gyms, it's going to be a difficult summer again."

She noted that she has already met with Lansing Town Recreation Director Steve Colt, and said that once the capital project bids are awarded school officials will know more about how construction will impact summer swimming and basketball programs.

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