Water aerobics at the Patrick Hays Senior Citizens Center in North Little Rock will be suspended for three weeks in December for repairs to the pool lining, the city's Senior Citizens Commission agreed Monday. The work is part of $32,891 in recent maintenance and repair expenses.
Repairing the aerobics pool will cost $16,170 if the low bidder is approved by the North Little Rock City Council at a later date. The second-lowest bid of $20,970, if accepted instead, would push repair and maintenance costs to $37,691 during the last two months for the city-operated center, 401 W. Pershing Blvd., center Director Charley Baxter said.
The pool is part of the original building, which opened in February 2003. An addition to the center that included a lap pool was completed in August 2007.
"It will be a problem for us in December for that pool to be down," Baxter said. "The other pool will remain open, but it's only for lap swimmers."
Baxter added that December is the center's slowest month, which is why he is asking that repairs be made during that month.
"The problem is going to be there will be a lot of dust and noise and smell," Baxter said, plus access to the lap pool will be blocked at times for the work, meaning swimmers will have to detour to get into it.
"We don't really have any choice but to repair it," commissioner Eddie Powell said.
Baxter said portions of the finish on the walls and base of the pool are forming "blisters" and flaking off.
The pool repair is the most expensive repair the Senior Center is experiencing, but other repairs and cleaning jobs have added up to strain the center's $987,691 budget as the budget year is coming to an end, Baxter said.
An electrical fire in September between the city's Parks and Recreation Center and the William F. Laman Library -- both in the same general complex as the Senior Center -- shorted out a camera in the center's video exercise room and a motor in the lap pool. Costs for those repairs have been $1,600 and $2,839, respectively, Baxter said.
The original floor sweeper that cleans all of the hard surfaces throughout the center went out, costing $5,036 to repair, Baxter said. Maintenance issues, he added, have been using a professional cleaner to steam clean furniture, $1,446; repair of a carpet cleaner, $1,800; and trimming dead limbs off trees in the center's parking lot, $4,000.
The money will come out of this year's budget, Baxter told the commission.
"I think we can squeeze the money out of the budget to pay for all of these things," Baxter said. "But it's a squeeze to get there. I think we can cover it if we don't have any more hiccups."
As a result of the tight budget, commissioners chose, by lack of a motion from any member, to refrain from spending $200 to buy tickets to the North Little Rock Woman's Club Fall Festival, an event to which the center has annually been a participant.
"Even though $200 is not an enormous amount, it comes out of a budget that is struggling," Powell said.
Metro on 10/28/2014