Less than a month ago, Tecumseh Public Schools announced that the Tecumseh Community Memorial Pool would “remain closed due to newly discovered structural concerns.” At the August 11 TPS board meeting, members received an update on those issues, and it’s troubling.
“Our concern is that the more we’re looking at this, we’re finding things that we weren’t expecting to find in areas that you couldn’t see before,” said a member of the school’s engineering team who didn’t identify themselves but is believed to be George Kacan, of Wightman. [18:19]
The team uncovered “degradation in the steel columns within the pool building,” according to the school’s July 23 announcement. Kacan told the board that they’re seeing “15 to 25 percent deterioration” and need to do additional testing to determine the extent of the damage, which he likened to an onion. [18:49]
“Our mechanical engineer quickly realized that the [HVAC] system that you currently have was not designed to meet the requirements of that space.”
Christine Kennedy, Wightman
“It might be good or it might not be good,” he added, but the prognosis isn’t encouraging. [19:00]
When TPS announced it would temporarily close the pool in April, it did so because “The pool’s dehumidification and ventilation systems, which date back to the original equipment installed in 1989, have been broken and are now beyond repair.”
And the whole thing might have been doomed to fail from the start.
Christine Kennedy, of Wightman, revealed that during their investigation, “Our mechanical engineer quickly realized that the [HVAC] system that you currently have was not designed to meet the requirements of that space.” [29:42]
And on top of that, Kacan told the board that “several of the steel members were not painted with the right type of paint or enough of it in order to protect it.” Protect them from what? The humidity and chloramines in the vapor that can “attack the steel.” [28:43]
“If everything is working the way it’s supposed to, the life expectancy is 50-plus years, once things are replaced. But the other systems have to work right.” [20:08]
The entire pool discussion is worth a listen. It’s linked below to start the 10:44-mark. It’d be even better if we had the packets and presentations to understand the current situation better.
Anthony Alaniz 