ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
A decision about the future of Adventure Bay Water Park could be a step closer after some discussions by the Liberal City Commission at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.
Tuesday, the commission heard the results of recent work done by GPRS – Ground Penetrating Radar Systems – to conduct a subsurface investigation of the City Pool and the surrounding deck area.
“We went through a process earlier this month that actually had gotten started in December to figure out where were the voids and where we were losing 20,000 foot-gallons of water every day at Adventure Bay Water Park,” Assistant Rec Director Travis Martinez said. “We contracted with GPRS to show us what was going on. A big question for us was whether or not the water was going under that intersection at 11th Street and Kansas Avenue That area was scanned, and the scans showed there are no voids in that intersection, which was a real relief on our side. The crew went from north to south and then from east to west on 11th Street looking at all of that, and then they looked at our drainage ditch just east of the facility, and they did not find any voids there either. The crew started with the sidewalk just south of the facility, where they did find a void that’s about 15 feet long that goes from the top of the cement of the deck toward the curb of that road. We don’t know how deep it is exactly, but we’re looking at anywhere from 3 feet to 20 feet, and the machine was only able to scan up to 3 feet deep. In talking with Brad [Beer] at the beginning of this process, that is where the parking lot of the old pool started, so we’re thinking all the gravel that was put in there has washed away to somewhere else. There were other voids found in the areas of the kiddie pool and the pirate ship pool. The void in the area of the pirate ship pool is particularly concerning because it ranges about 20 feet, and we’re about 6 feet wide, but again, we’re not sure how deep it goes. Under the pirate ship pool, there is another pool, the older pool. Based on descriptions from Jose [Rosales] at the Water Department, we built up from the old pool about 8 feet and then more on top of that. Under there, we’re losing somewhere between 3 feet and then the bottom of the deck of the old pool, which is another 15 feet.”
And the scans made even more discoveries, Martinez continued.
“Our No. 1 void location is just west of the red and yellow slides – it goes from the edge of the lap pool all the way back to the pumphouse,” Martinez said. “We’re talking 30 to 45 feet from the deck of the pool all the way to pumphouse, and it’s about 6 feet wide on all sides. That’s another one we can’t tell the full depth of, but we do know it’s at least 3 feet, and there’s the old pool sitting at probably 10 feet deep, so we would need to go really deep to figure all of that out.”
“And another big concern with that area is that’s where all the big water lines are coming out of,” Recreation Director Matt Quint said. “Out of the pumphouse, that’s taking water to the lap pool and to the slides, so there’s a lot of water pressure in that area.”
Martinez continued sharing the results of the scans.
“There’s an area in the middle of the facility where the two pools are joined. The old pool was the whole thing from the lap pool to the pirate ship pool, which is also where the bulkheads are,” Martinez said. “Those bulkheads in the middle of those two pools are leaking somewhere. On the north side of the pool, that’s another major area we have – we did some repairs in that area last year, that’s where our Hydrostorm gets fed from the pumphouse by a 4-inch pipe. We repaired two spots in the Hydrostorm last year, but there’s clearly still some repairs/replacements to be made along that area. There was also a void found in the area going from the lap pool all the way back to the pumphouse, and it looks like it’s pretty extensive. That is right under the red and yellow slides. With the red slide, one of the pillars goes right in the center of that void, and we don’t know how far that pillar goes down or how deep the void is, and that obviously brings about concerns about stability. There was another void found behind the bulkhead in the kiddie pool right behind the frog. What we’re thinking is since we don’t have anything in that kiddie pool, we’re losing water all day every day, and we’re filling that up twice a day. Since we don’t have any voids in the kiddie pool, we’re thinking the water is coming back to that bulkhead, and we’re leaking out of that bulkhead.”
Martinez then showed an overhead photo of the pool showing where all of the voids were found throughout the scanning, and discussion continued for several minutes.
“I’m very glad we did this, and I’m very glad the City of Liberal was on board with getting this work done, because this will help us move forward in whatever direction we decide to go, whether that’s remodeling, a brand-new facility, or moving everything to another spot,” Quint said. “This really gives us some good guidance toward the next steps.”
After the discussion, the commission decided a work session will take place in the near future to address some of the questions and concerns.
In other new business, the commission unanimously approved a bid from HECO, LLC for $9,500 for a new HVAC unit at the Tourist Information Center as well as the purchase of a rainbow bench to be placed next to the new Ruby Red Slipper Slide.
