Westlock’s pool could reopen to the public within four or five weeks, if all goes according to plan, and the fix should last until the end of the pool’s lifespan.
Town council passed a motion at its Oct. 27 meeting to pay $158,000 to replace the Master Control Centre (MCC) at the Westlock Aquatic Centre, and the figure came as a relief to many councillors.
“This quote looks much better than what we thought we might be facing,” Coun. Wyatt Glebe said.
Recreation services director Mike Butler explained to council that after getting two separate companies to provide quotes on different possible solutions, he recommended awarding the contract to Complete Power Solutions, which offered much faster delivery.
“In order to compare apples to apples I did six different possibilities we could look at, but at the end of the day for me, it was about timelines,” he said.
“With Complete Power Solutions they indicate they’re going to be able to do with work in four to five weeks as opposed to two or three months.”
Council first heard of problems at the pool at their Sept. 8 meeting, when Butler reported a ground fault had been discovered that would shut down power to almost the entire building every time it tripped, but at the time administration thought it could be easily remedied.
Once electrical technicians examined the problem they discovered the problem was bigger than just a ground fault and recommended an entire MCC, which acts as the circuit breaker for the builder, would have to be replaced.
In response to a question from mayor Ralph Leriger, Butler explained to council the $158,000 fix would be a long-term solution to the problem with the MCC, and is expected to last until the end of the pool’s usable lifespan, which is expected to be roughly another 20 years.
“That was our thought process, that this repair would fix our problem,” he said. “In saying that if we put the new MCC unit in we may have problems in other areas we’re not aware of yet, but this is one of the big pieces and we need to deal with that.”
There was also some discussion about whether the MCC, which is currently located in the basement, should be moved or raised up off the ground at a further expense.
Butler said he recommended against that, as other measures have been taken that will prevent further risk of damaging flooding in that area.
“Before I think it was about 18 inches that it got up to,” he said. “With the improvements we’ve done now and the equipment we’ve put in, that won’t happen.”
