Shipping delay pushes back Kingsport Aquatic Center reopening
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Improvements and maintenance at the Kingsport Aquatic Center will take a little longer than expected, the City of Kingsport announced Thursday.
According to a news release from the city, an "unforeseen shipping delay" will push back the aquatic center's reopening date to Sept. 30.
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Aquatic director Wendy Terrazas attributed the delay to the fact that the new starting blocks for the facility still have not arrived.
"As soon as the new starting blocks arrive, we'll install them and pour the concrete, but it has to cure before we have patrons back in the facility," Terrazas stated in the release. "Barring any other unforeseen circumstances, we should reopen to the public on September 30."
Operation supervisor Madison Gump told News Channel 11 that while work inside has seen a setback thanks to the shipping delay, the work outside is on track.
"We are on schedule for outside, so we are doing painting for our lazy river," Gump said. "We are laying tile and acid washing the leisure pool and that's going well. We are actually almost done with that and looking to be done by Monday with those projects."
The aquatic center closed to the public on Sept. 1 for what was expected to be three weeks. During the closure, crews have conducted maintenance and made improvements to the locker rooms, bathrooms, lazy river and pools at the Kingsport Aquatic Center.
"We simply don't have what we need to complete the project," Terrazas stated in the release. "We apologize for this delay, but we believe our patrons and the swimming community will be excited once they see the finished product."
The new starting blocks in transit will be installed to the Olympic-sized lap pool. According to Gump, the aquatic center cannot allow the lap pool to reopen until the starting blocks arrive and are properly installed.
"Unfortunately, with the holes that we have in our deck right now, we have rebar showing in our deck that would not be safe for us to have people to enter in and walk around," Gump said. "We want to make sure that it is a safe place for everybody to come swim, walk around safely and not have to worry about any holes or possibly tripping over something that could hurt them."
All of the center's indoor pools have been drained and will be re-caulked and cleaned. The outdoor water slides and lazy river have also received fresh coats of paint.
The city reports that all of the indoor pools have been filled and chemical work is being done as of Thursday. The contractor, DWR Aquatics, is also wrapping up work on the center's locker rooms, which includes installing new shower fixtures.
