Delays in repairs to the wave pool in Hurricane, coupled with more repairs than officials originally projected, will shutter the pool for the entire summer.
The Putnam County Parks and Recreation board decided Thursday not to open the pool for the 2016 swim season, according to Parks and Rec pool manager Jamie Wright.
Wright said the decision was made to put a new liner in the pool last fall, but workers discovered then that the gutter system also needed replaced.
"The fabrication of new gutters and plans had to be drawn up, and with the weather, they've just been delayed so much that they were projecting an early to mid-July opening for us, which pretty much canceled half our season," Wright said. "With schools starting in early August now, our pool season has already been cut short in the last several years ... the board met (Thursday) and made a decision based on not generating enough finances, to go ahead and close the pool."
Wright said the board had considered just fixing the gutter system and opening the pool for 30 or 40 days without a liner, replacing the liner after closing the pool for the season, but ultimately decided to complete all the repairs and reopen the pool next year.
"Even with 30 or 40 days, that's without bad weather," he said. "They just didn't think that was feasible."
There are several other public pools in the area, Wright said - the cities of Eleanor, Nitro and Saint Albans all have their own public pools, and Hurricane has a separate spray park. There are also private pools that residents may choose to pay membership fees to use, he said.
Last year, Putnam County Parks and Recreation Director Scott Williamson estimated that the pool loses more than $9,000 annually because crews have to dump out usable water to make temporary repairs to the pool's plaster foundation. The new liner would mean the pool would only need to be emptied every three years.