Neighborhood Notes

Many thanks Tanya for pointing out this article in the Portland Tribune. We've been wondering why the pool is closed, what with swimming lesson season going strong. Here's the article:

Some Northwest Portland residents are steamed that the only public swimming pool in their part of town has been closed for seven months — included during the recent heat waves, when temperatures topped 90 degrees.

The pool in the basement of the MLC School is owned by Portland Public Schools and operated by Portland Parks & Recreation. It has been shut since late last year because of leaks and that will cost an estimated half-million dollars to repair, including upgrading the pool’s plumbing and drainage systems.

“This is not a priority for us at this time,” said school district spokesman Matt Shelby. “Our priority classroom instruction.”

The parks bureau has no plans to immediately repair the pool, either.

But neighborhood resident Katherine Dunn notes it is the only public pool in that part of town.

“The many people who would like to use the pool have been angered and discouraged by the shut down,” said Dunn, a writer who used to swim in the pool. “Northwest Portland has the highest density population in the city, actually in the state, and it is consistently under served by the Portland Parks and Recreation Department.”

Flushing thousands of gallons away

Formerly known as the Metropolitan Learning Center, MLC is a public alternative school at 2033 N.W. Glisan St. The four-lane, 20-year pool was built in the 1920s, the same time the school building was constructed.

Unlike modern pools, the one at MLC recycles water for cleaning through vents that lie in a gutter that circles the outside of it. Swimmers must splash water outside the pool in order for the cleaning system to work.

According to Shelby, the pool is leaking between 500 and 600 gallons a day. The leak causes the level to drop about a foot, where it reaches the level of the surrounding water table and stops. The one-foot gap prevents swimmers from splashing regularly water into the drain, however, preventing the cleaning system from working.

Although the pool could be refilled every few days, Shelby said that would be irresponsible.

“For starters, we don’t know where the water is going — but it would be like flushing thousands of gallons of water away every month,” he said.

The pool is completely covered in tile. According to Shelby, the pool was recently inspected by Pool Masters, a contractor hired by the district. It determined that the grout holding the tiles together was leaking at numerous locations.

Fixing the pool requires completely scraping ll tiles from the pool and recovering the exposed surfaces. Pool Masters recommended also upgrading the plumbing and drainage systems at the same time, pushing the estimated repair cost to around $500,000.

When a similar problem was discovered at the pool in Buckman School in Southeast Portland a few years ago, it cost $400,000 and took more than a year to fix. The parks bureau paid the full cost of the repairs with funds from a voter-approved property tax levy. All remaining levy funds are already committed to other projects.

The parks bureau operates six indoor pools, including the one at MLC, and seven outdoor ones. Northwest Portland is the only city quadrant that has only one public pool — the closed one at MLC.