The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Things will look a little brighter, and a little clearer, from now on at the Lee Beran Recreation Center pool.

The Emporia Recreation Commission facility’s pool opened Thursday with new lighting and ventilation systems, work on which began in late November. Lap swimmers were the first to try the newly lit and ventilated pool on Thursday morning. In the afternoon, a group of students from Lowther North Intermediate School got to try it out as a reward for successful participation in a student program. They jumped in and immediately began having fun, though the water was considerably colder than the intended 88-degree temperature.

The new indirect lights, located halfway up the wall instead of on the ceiling, don’t just provide better illumination. ERC director Tom McEvoy estimated the lighting system cost around $9,000 — a bargain compared to the cost, and the pain, of fixing the old ceiling lights.

“Every time something went out, we had to drain the pool, you had to get a lift in here to try and change out bulbs ... it was real expensive,” said Mike Lynch, the ERC’s aquatics director. “Doing this new lighting system like we have, any time a bulb or something goes out, we here are able to fix it. We don’t have to call anybody to fix it for us.”

Lynch said the total cost of the new lighting system was probably about twice the cost to repair the old ceiling lights just one time.

The pool’s new air unit replaced the one that had been installed in 1983. McEvoy estimated its cost at about $215,000.

“The old ventilation system we had was just that — it was old,” Lynch said. “It didn’t work very well ... You weren’t able to keep the water temperature very high. If you did, the windows, everything, would fog over real bad. It was wet everywhere; it just wasn’t working well enough.”

Lynch said he was happy with the finished product.

“Before they did this, if we were standing here, you and I would be sweating right now,” he said. “But it’s not too bad. And the lights I’m extremely happy with. It’s unbelievable what they’ve done there.”