News and Public Media for North Central Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

After 10 Weeks Of Repairs, Gainesville's Northeast Pool Reopens

For 10 weeks, David Huelsman and the Gator Water Polo team couldn't practice in their home waters at the Dwight H. Hunter Northeast Pool.

Huelsman, the head coach, said it was difficult to train, and the team had to make arrangements with another local club to assist them.

“It meant to us less practices and limited growth of our program,” he said. "It also had a severe impact on the high school water polo season."

The Gator Water Polo team was just one of many local organizations adversely affected when the pool at 1100 NE 14th St. shut down on Jan. 9 because of faulty lining.

But Northeast Pool — home to more than 55,000 annual visitors, five local high school teams and two club swim teams — reopened on Friday.

The pool is the only year-round, municipal aquatic facility within Gainesville's city limits.

Natare Corporation installed vinyl liner over the original fiberglass shell in 2008 as part of the overall renovation and upgrade of the pool, but the liner continued to have problems.

When Northeast Pool closed on Jan. 9, it was drained so City of Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department staff, Natare’s staff and a pool-industry expert could thoroughly inspect the liner and start the necessary fixes.

“We conducted a lot of research into possible causes and followed up on leads,” said Jeff Moffitt, the city of Gainesville’s Recreation Supervisor. “However, we could not find a pinpoint of any specific causes as to why the original liner failed.”

Moffitt said that the old, degraded vinyl liner was removed and replaced with a new liner. The process involved removing the old liner and the underlying felt padding and repairing any delaminated fiberglass on the pool’s shell underneath.

The pool was originally scheduled to reopen on March 1, but the date was extended to April 1 because of precautionary steps, Moffitt said.

“When we drained the pool and inspected the old liner, we felt that further inspection and more research was necessary to try and find the root cause of the liner failure,” he said. “We needed to do our due diligence to eliminate ... the possibility that this could happen again with the new liner.”

Huelsman said he felt the repairs were necessary but that he's glad the Gator Water Polo team is finally back in its home pool.  The total renovation cost was $122,000.

“We have called Northeast Pool our home since our program's inception in 2013,” he said.

Caylee is a reporter for WUFT News and can be contacted by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.
Chloe is a reporter for WUFT News and can be contacted by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.