Construction setbacks have delayed the reopening of Easling Pool at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center by several weeks – with Grand Traverse Bay YMCA leaders working to provide alternatives for members shut out of the facility.

Work on the $625,000 Easling Pool project – including renovations to the pool sanitation system, air-handling equipment, liner, decking, locker rooms, and lobby – kicked off July 2. The project was originally expected to be completed by early August. But setbacks pushed the targeted opening date back to August 27, and then again to the end of September, with staff now estimating an earliest possible opening date of October 1.

According to Grand Traverse County Parks and Recreation Director Kristine Erickson, the project hit a snag when flooring was installed in the facility’s locker rooms. RenoSys, the vendor hired to install the pool liner and decking and locker room flooring, used the same type of decking material for the locker room floors that was used in the pool area. While the decking is “beautiful” around the pool, says Erickson, it didn’t fit the locker rooms.

“The product didn’t work in the space,” says Erickson. “It wasn’t a job that was done to our standards. We had to go to a different vendor for the locker rooms and change the (flooring) selection.”

The hiccup – which required crews to tear up the flooring and staff to scramble to place a new order – increased the locker room budget from $30,000 to $50,000. Erickson says she negotiated with RenoSys to get credit for the initial failed flooring installation; those funds and county contingency funds will help cover the funding gap. “Our intent is not to use donors’ money to make this right,” Erickson says, referring to the community fundraising campaign spearheaded by Friends of Easling Pool that paid for the pool project.

While a significant portion of the main pool area is complete (pictured), the facility cannot reopen until all improvements – including the locker rooms – are finished. “The MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) will conduct its health inspection and look at the pool as a whole package,” Erickson says. “The locker rooms have to be ready along with the pool, otherwise you can’t be approved to open.”

The construction delays required Grand Traverse Bay YMCA leaders to come up with alternative options for pool access for their members. The YMCA operates Easling Pool as part of its Central Y location through a contract with Grand Traverse County. The organization is not involved in the renovation project, however, since the building is still a county facility. YMCA Central Aquatics Director Tony Venticinque says the YMCA is allowing Central Y members to use the West Y facility on Silver Lake Road for free until Easling Pool is completed.

“(Central Y members) have all the benefits of the West Y, including access to the full gym,” he says. “We’ve also given members the option to suspend their membership if they don’t want to use it (while the pool is closed), without any penalty.”

Venticinque says several other accommodations have been made at West Y for groups who typically use Easling Pool. Swim lanes have been consolidated and hours expanded to accommodate swim teams who normally train at Central Y, including high school teams. Still, the project delay presents setbacks for the YMCA. “It’s completely stopped us from offering swim lessons at Central Y, so that’s a bit of an inconvenience,” Venticinque says. “I’ve doubled my lesson staff for when it reopens so that we’ll be ready (to handle the demand).”

Both Erickson and Venticinque say that even without the construction delays, the initial projected timeline to complete Easling Pool was unrealistically ambitious. “Pools are a huge construction project,” says Erickson. “We thought we could do it in five to six weeks, but the magnitude of the project is much more than we ever realized.” Venticinque concurs. “Most of us in the aquatic community were surprised when they first announced the amount of time it would take,” he says. “So it’s not completely unexpected that it would take this long.”

However, both Erickson and Venticinque believe the final product – a completely renovated Easling Pool available for long-term community use – will be worth the delay. “The pool looks great,” says Venticinque, echoing the comments of several high-level donors who toured the project site at a special reception Thursday. “We’re very eager for it to get done.”

Erickson says her department is also impatient to see the project completed. “As a parks and rec director, you’ll probably only see a pool rebuilt once in your life,” she says. “We certainly understand the community wanting to be in their pool. We want it to open as quickly as they do.”

Photo credit: Kristine Erickson