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 in both pools must be refinished.
• The pool deck is a slip and fall safety concern and lacks overall ADA access.
Overall, the facility, which includes the pools and locker rooms, is in poor, outdated condition, and yet is fully booked seven days a week. During the school year, the pool is used from 5:30 am until the start of the school day, then after school until 9:00 pm, and all day on weekends. During the summer, both pools are used all day, every day. Users include AUSD water polo, swim and dive teams (307 participants), community youth swim and water polo teams (387 participants), adult Masters swim team, water polo drop-in play (60 participants), ARPD swim lessons (607 participants), and recreation swim and lap swim (2,001 participants). These groups are all 95% - 99% Alameda residents with water polo having slightly lower resident rates of 75% - 80%.
On February 13, 2019, the AUSD/City Subcommittee held a meeting to discuss this topic at which many aquatic community members attended and spoke. On March 4, 2019, the City Council discussed this issue and appointed Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and Vice-Mayor John Knox White to serve on the Ad-Hoc Committee and to include three community members. This Ad-Hoc Committee has met twice and continues to meet weekly. The Committee receives repair and timeline updates and discusses long-term solutions for a permanent City swim center.
DISCUSSION
An assessment report was issued by an AUSD consultant that reviewed the code violations and determined costs for repair as well as replacement of the Emma Hood pools, with one pool that is similar in size and shape to the new Encinal High School pool and that meets California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) requirements for water polo and swimming competitions.
This report lists the following options and associated costs. All costs are based on the project being under Division of the State Architect (DSA), which provides design and construction oversight for all K-12 schools in California.
1) Repair the swim pool and eliminate the dive pool: $1.7 M
This option addresses the code concerns and provides a continued practice facility for the community and school swim teams on a limited basis since the swim pool is too shallow for starting blocks and water polo use. This option, however, does not meet CIF requirements.
2) Repair both the dive and swim pools: $3.6 M
This option addresses the code concerns and provides a continued practice facility for all community and school teams. This option, however, does not meet CIF requirements.
3) New replacement pool: $5.2 M to $7 M
These costs are based on the Encinal Swim Center design of one pool that meets the CIF requirements for swimming, water polo, and diving. It lacks certain aspects for community use such as a gradual entry for seniors.
4) Demolish both pools or close the pools until funding is identified: $250,000 to demolish or $125,000 annually to operate the pools in closed condition. Chemical balances and other safety aspects must be maintained even when the pools are closed.
City staff met with ACEHD staff and discussed further options to keep the pools open if specific repairs were done to meet minimum safety standards, as agreed upon by ACEHD, and a plan was provided to meet specific milestones and ultimately secure funding for a permanent City swim center.
Long-term options
• Consider building a City swim center with community input. This could include additional amenities such as a splash pad, shaded picnic area and seating. It creates a number of opportunities to expand aquatic programming in Alameda. It will allow for year-round programming for tiny tots, seniors, swim lessons, and lunch time lap swim, all of which are not currently available. Expanded programming could also include a Junior Lifeguard program, Family Swim activities, community events such as “Swim-in Movies,” and birthday party rentals. The splash pad could be used by children of all ages and is often requested by the community. It is important to consider that a City swim center will incur both the initial construction and furnishing expenses as well as ongoing annual operation and maintenance costs. Pools are generally an overall expense and do not recover costs due to high operational costs.
• Consider location for a City swim center. The existing site at Alameda High School is ideal as it’s near the parking garage and Park Street, which provides economic development as people are drawn from the aquatic programs to restaurants and other businesses on Park Street. However, this would require working with AUSD to transfer the land to the City since, otherwise, it would be under DSA requirements. School aquatic teams would continue to have priority as they do at all City athletic facilities. Other locations have not yet been identified, but can be reviewed by the working subcommittee.
• Determine funding options. This could include a proposed City infrastructure bond (potential measure for November 2020 ballot), identifying private donors, or a public-private partnership, which can provide financing options such as developer-financed construction or lease/leaseback structures.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There are no financial impacts from this report and discussion. The funding for any potential solutions, such as improvements or replacement, will go before City Council for further discussion and budget allocation.
RECOMMENDATION
Discuss the status of the Emma Hood Swim Center at Alameda High School.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Exhibits:
1. Presentation