Title
Discussion on the Status of the Emma Hood Swim Center at Alameda High School.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Discussion on the Status of the Emma Hood Swim Center at Alameda High School.
BACKGROUND
AUSD and the City of Alameda (City) have a Joint Use Agreement under which AUSD currently operates and maintains the swim centers at both Alameda and Encinal High Schools. The City manages the schedule for both swim facilities. The cost of operation, maintenance and improvements is equally shared between AUSD and the City.
The Emma Hood Swim Center is located on the Alameda High School campus and has a swim pool and a smaller, deeper, dive pool. Both pools and the locker room are decades old and in poor condition.
In 2010, the Alameda County Environmental Health Department (ACEHD) raised public safety and code violation concerns. The City and AUSD staff met and addressed a number of the issues raised by ACEHD including installing new filters, heaters, chlorine system, and a chemical feed controller, which increased the flow rate much higher than it had been previously. In 2013, all of the mechanical equipment and leaking water pipes were replaced. In 2015, a new pool opened at Encinal High School. Prior to the construction, the Encinal pool's condition was worse than Emma Hood Swim Center.
Recently, the ACEHD cited significant code concerns at the pool that were previously "grandfathered" and allowed to not be addressed for many years. Now ACEHD is requiring closure of the Swim Center pools in May 2019 unless the issues are addressed and brought up to code.
The primary code violations cited recently by ACEHD include the following:
* Both pools have co-mingled water with a single pipe system and one pump room. Consequently, the facility lacks the ability to verify that each pool is meeting the required 6-hour turnover rate.
* The plaster...
Click here for full text