Air bubble could cause temporary pool closure

At its July 11 meeting, the Red Oak Park and Tree Board received a general update about the Red Oak Municipal Pool as well as news of a potential issue that may need to be addressed.
“On the pool report, for disappointing news to start with, we have a bubble in the liner,” Board Chairman Bill Drey said. “They’ve looked at it, and if it gets any bigger, the pool will probably get closed.”
Park Superintendent Adam VanDerVliet concurred with Drey by providing further information about the bubble. He said it is currently located against the wall near where the slide ends. Though pool staff are worried about the bubble getting bigger and moving, it does not pose any problem currently.
To prevent the bubble from moving, VanDerVliet said the only thing pool staff can do is try their best to keep swimmers from going near or touching it.
“As long as it doesn’t get any bigger and it doesn’t go underneath the floor, we’re fine,” he said. “If it does go underneath and rise, we’ll have to drain it.”
VanDerVliet continued by mentioning that there is a suction point in which pool staff could use a vacuum to rid of the bubble. Then, they would have to glue the pool liner back down. As discussed by the board, the downside of this practice is that there cannot be water in the pool when doing so.
“Hopefully, ideally, it will stay like this … if not, we have a plan to get it fixed if it does get to that point, but it will probably take a couple days to get that done,” he said.
Board member Anna Boeye then voiced a concern about what would happen if the bubble were to pop, as this could cause water to leak from the pool. However, VanDerVliet responded by stating this likely would not happen.
“I don’t think it will pop,” he said. “I think the biggest thing will be more air will get underneath of it and just kind of lift it up.”
Following this conversation between the board members, Pool Manager Georgana Derr gave a general update about the pool. She said that despite opening 13 days late, the pool has gotten a lot of foot traffic and seen much success this season.
“Now that it’s hot, we’ve been really busy,” she said. “Our staff is fantastic. If you ever come by, they’re always on their guard stations. My managers are great. Concessions is doing a really great job with staying open. Facebook, we’ve been posting every day our hours and different activities.”
Derr then told the board that the pool recently implemented AquaZumba, which is held three days a week. She has also had to make slight changes to Twilight Swim, as the pool has received numerous requests to host birthday parties.
“We have enough staff to really be diversified in our programming and just to be open a lot,” she said.
Though Derr reflected positively on her experience with managing the Red Oak pool this summer, she said there is one improvement she would like to see.
“I think the biggest thing is it’s very apparent that we’re going to need a new bathhouse pretty soon,” she said. “It’s literally rusting apart. It’s the one not-nice piece about our pool.”
One final topic Derr addressed is her plan for RAGBRAI. She said the pool will be open like normal, but after closing, she and other adult staff will stay to keep the showers open until 11 p.m. for the riders.
No further discussion was held regarding the pool report.