Two of the city of Cleveland’s three pools opened Memorial Day weekend with a full complement of certified lifeguards. The new pool at Mosby Park is still under construction.
The pools at South Cleveland Community Center and Tinsley Park are open daily between the hours of 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. each Sunday until school starts. The pools will remain open only on weekends through Labor Day after school starts. The pools are located in Tinsley Park, 4031 Keith St. N.W., South Cleveland Community Center, 1334 Church St. S.E.; and Mosby Park is located at 150 Shepard St. N.E.
Restroom renovations at Mosby Park are complete, but the new pool has been delayed by the state health department, weather, surface and groundwater intrusion, and the company building the pool works only four days a week.
Digging a dry well to deal with the intrusion of ground and surface water was the latest delay, according to architect Doug Caywood of the Lewis Group. He said the contractor, Georgia Gunite, did not ask for additional days, but that accounted for a delay of at least a week.
“We also had a state waiver on the gutter we had selected for the pool so we could match the one we used at South Cleveland. That review process took 28 days, which would typically take between seven and 10 days,” he said. “It has just kind of piled up and hopefully within the next two week, if it’s not raining — Georgia Gunite is on-site. As soon as the surfacing for the gunite goes on — it should move rather quickly. We’ve got local subcontractors working on the concrete and the fencing.”
He said all of the equipment has been purchased and the pool slide is ready to ship.
“It really amounts to pretty days and them being on-site getting the surfacing of the interior of the pool complete,” he said.
At-Large Councilman Richard Banks asked if Georgia Gunite was on-site every day.
Mr. Caywood replied that the company works Monday through Thursday.
“We have asked them to work additional hours, but we have not been successful getting them here on Fridays and weekends to push that along,” he said.
Councilman Banks said, “They have a deadline but they don’t work on Fridays and we have kids that need to go swimming. We’ve got Fourth of July weekend coming up and they’re not going to have a swimming pool. What’s the penalty on the person or company that bid this out at the lowest bid?”
Mr. Caywood replied that the same front-end documents used at Mosby Park that were used at South Cleveland Community Center in 2013. Neither contract specified any liquidated damages since it was a government contract and not a business contract where a delay would have involved a loss of revenue.
“I’m hearing complaints from some parents that think they’re getting pushed back because we’re doing all of these other projects and their kids don’t have a place to swim,” Councilman Banks said. “I don’t know what we need to do. They ought to have someone on-site this Friday.”