After a couple of months of chilly waters, warmer conditions could soon be on the way back to the Elizabethton High School swimming pool.
The replacement of the pool heater has been included on the agenda for next week’s Board of Education meeting and the equipment’s cost, plus installation from Trane, is not expected to exceed $30,000.
“We have been working to come up with the correct, long-term solution that will be a permanent fix,” Gardenhour said.
The school system had been working with different companies on pool heater system designs and believe they have found one comparable to the heater system that is currently in the pool, he said. The now non-functioning heater is original to the pool when EHS was built in the early 1970s.
The school system will get to work as quickly as possible to repair the pool’s heater if the replacement is approved by the school board, Gardenhour added.
“We would love to have heat in the pool again,” he said. “Without heat, the pool is pretty much unusable.”
Gardenhour explained certain water temperatures are required for swim meets for the school’s swim teams. Also, the system did not want the public to be using a pool filled with cold water.
In the time since the elements in the heater burned out, he said Milligan College has been allowing the swim teams to use the college’s pool for competitions and practices.
“They have been a very gracious host in this, and have been wonderful in allowing the swim teams to use their facilities,” Gardenhour said.
The water aerobics classes held in the school’s pool have been canceled until the heater can be repaired, but attendees were given a list of water aerobics classes held at nearby facilities.
The Board of Education will meet Thursday, Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m.