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City workers are currently in the process of making repairs to a portion of Adventure Bay Water Park. The facility is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend, and after a pipe broke under the floor of the main pool, the workers were called in to fix the problem. L&T photo/Robert Pierce
Current commisssioners say water leaks froze and damaged slide pool base
By ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Spring began Wednesday, and with the Memorial Day weekend a little more than two months away, thoughts of summer are already on the minds of many in the area.
That weekend is also the traditional opening weekend for Liberal’s swimming pool, but before Adventure Bay Water Park can admit local water enthusiasts this year, a little work is being done to the facility.
Current city commissioners were questioned about that work during Tuesday’s candidate forum, specifically about what happened and why none of it was reported to the public.
Vice mayor Joe Denoyer said a pipe between the current floor of the main pool and Adventure Bay’s foundation floor broke.
“Water leaked. Nature happened. Water froze. It buckled,” he said. “The pool’s cement was breaking out. We have to fix the pool if we want to open the water park. It was an act of nature, and we’re correcting that problem.”
As for why locals were allegedly kept in the dark about the issues at the pool, commissioner Dave Harrison said the media failed to cover a special commission workshop on the subject.
“The press, I’m sure, was notified, so the public should’ve known,” he said. “I don’t know what else we can do. It’s being taken care of, and our intention is to have the pool and water park open in time, right on time.”
Mayor Tim Long called the situation an unfortunate one.
“It happens,” he said.
Long added the entire pool is not being torn up, but rather, city workers are simply taking the bottom out, fixing the leak and putting the bottom back in. He agreed with Harrison, saying the commission did conduct a public meeting.
“We don’t report every water main that ruptures either to the public,” Long said.
The mayor added commissioners are elected to take care of issues within the city.
“That’s how we look at it,” Long said. “It’s one of the issues that are coming up, and we deal with it. We do it in the most efficient way, and we try to spend the taxpayers’ dollars to fix it the most wise way that we can find to do it.”
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