FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio — Just when Gemini Center Aquatic Facility pool goers thought everything was going well, issues have continued to plague it.
RELATED: Fairview Park's leisure pool still closed; no timeline on reopening so far
I first covered the HVAC, pool liner, humidity, and pool deck drain issues in August.
When News 5 previously spoke with Fairview Park Mayor Bill Schneider, he said, "I believe construction was adequate. These are hiccups that you find when you start up a new facility, and we are renovating an old facility that already had problems. We expected to at least find some issues in the future. We're thankful that the issues cropped up somewhat soon because we still have all of our construction crews available."
The Leisure Pool had shut down for three weeks in August, and then the Competition Pool closed for less than half an hour last week.
"We did close it out of precaution for about 15 to 20 minutes just to make sure that the humidity levels weren't going to rise, but by the time we closed and moved everybody over into the Leisure Pool, everything fired back up as intended, as was supposed to based off of the equipment that we have, and we were able to jump right back into the pool, no pun intended," the city's Director of Recreation Kerry Kemp said on Tuesday.
While that was the extent of that closure, in the few months the Gemini Center has welcomed guests back, at least three people have gotten hurt due to defects, according to Fairview Park Councilmember-At-Large Kim Mann at Monday's council meeting.
Carrie Cofer is one of those.
She told me she had just finished up her morning swim in early August and was on her way out of the pool area when she slipped on a deck drain, painfully injuring herself.
"My right foot just slipped out from underneath me. My left foot curled up under me and I just fell flat, and it hyperextended my right leg. I just fell flat and I was kind of stunned there for a minute," Cofer told me.
She said the lifeguards on duty were helpful in retrieving her now-needed walking stick from her car and making sure she was okay.
"I was in a huge amount of pain. I couldn't walk for two and a half days. I had to use my walking stick for about a month afterwards. I couldn't step backwards. If I stepped backwards, that sent pain up," Cofer said.
Because of the accident, she had to give up her tickets to an Ohio State game and a Blossom concert.
She's also a local teacher, so she said she wasn't able to decorate her classroom or move around desks to rearrange her own.
"I was popping Tylenol and Advil like it was going out of style," Cofer said.
Cofer said, after that, no one from the city reached out to her and she hadn't publicly heard anything further about the issues surrounding the pools.
She did, however, see non-slip mats placed over deck drains after her accident.
"The Cofer mats," she joked.
At Monday night's council meeting, a representative from Sixmo Architecture, the design team that assisted in this project, said the slippery drains are due to a lack of tile filler.
She told council the lack thereof is because there was push back during construction.
"The tile installer was like, 'Look, these things are going to make my tile job look bad because this stuff isn't perfectly straight.' So, they suggested this option of doing a six-inch wide by 24-inch-long tile," she said. "Complements the pool, and then it makes that irregularity a little less obvious. What none of us anticipated was that tile, without all the grout lines in it, because it was bigger pieces of tile, was more slippery than the rest of the pool deck. We've looked into some different options and... had some great experience with a product that is scheduled to be installed this week that should address [it], and they're going to do it on the entire pool deck, not just those most slippery areas. We can do it on the entire pool deck."
For the wrinkles in the pool liner, that same representative explained the reason behind it is that the liner is not fully adhered to the pool floor, which was intended.
She noted they'd put a similar liner into the Leisure Pool as they have in 12 other pools since 2010, admitting a couple of them had issues with wrinkling, too.
However, when a councilmember asked about whether there was an option of continued check-ups to ensure the problem is dissipating, the design team representative said, "I don't think we've talked to them about that, but that's a good idea."
The pool liner does have a 10-year warranty through the manufacturer.
Other issues discussed at the meeting included the HVAC system and faulty electricity supplied by FirstEnergy.
On Tuesday, we met with Mayor Schneider, Kemp, and Ward 5 Councilman Rick Raley to better understand how the facility has gotten to this point.
"I really can't give a good answer to that. I know that the contractors are trying to figure out what to do, but everything they've done so far has not gotten the job done," Raley said. "Anybody who said that construction's adequate is flat wrong because common sense in our experience says that's not true."
Raley said he did appreciate Monday's meeting, though, as it gave an opportunity for deeper insight.
"Since we talked last, I've had a lot of time to look at documents and to hear from people, including the contract and design team and we had a nice meeting last night to learn more. In that time, I've learned that there was information at the time that the pools were open that there were issues with an HVAC unit, that there were issues with the liner in the pool, and that there was also an issue with the slippery pool deck. We're now four months into operation and we have those exact same issues today," Raley said.
He called the need for more repairs unacceptable.
Raley said, "Unfortunately, last night, one of the most important things that stood out to me was a member of the contract team says, 'Well, most of the project's been done right,' and I wanna be very clear: I don't think that most being right is what we need. The people of this community paid $14 million to get the whole job right, so that response was not acceptable to me."
One of the big questions now: Who will pay for the additional repairs?
Raley hopes it's not the residents.
"From my perspective, none of this should be borne by taxpayers of this community," Raley said. "They (contractors) better be paying, not our residents."
Mayor Schneider said everything is under warranty — that the city is going to exercise every right it has in the contract.
"We started working with the construction team to make sure that all these issues were remedied and we're staying on top and making sure that the voters and the residents of the city of Fairview Park get exactly what they were promised. We're not going to let it go. We're on top of it. We're holding them to their contract," Schneider said. "We have liability protection. We can get refunded for items. Basically whatever the city is entitled to, we're going to get."
He said he felt as if Monday's meeting was a positive step forward.
"I thought that the contractors explained everything completely. I think all the questions that were out there have been answered. I think all of the rumors have been answered as well. We're open and we're transparent," Schneider said.
We also spoke with Kemp about the Gemini Center.
He wanted to reassure everyone that the pools are still structurally sound.
"I was very satisfied with what I heard last night in our council meeting," Kemp said. "The questions were asked and our experts, our design team, our contractors, our owner's rep all told the very same story. They're in this for the long haul. They want to make sure that they get this job done right and they're going to be here until it is done right."
In Monday's meeting, another temporary closure was mentioned for both the Leisure and Competition Pool.
An unidentified date in December was said for the Leisure Pool, with a date shortly following for the Competition Pool.
Cofer didn't know about the floating closure dates until I told her on Tuesday.
"I just wanna swim. Can we stop the drama? Fix it, get it done. It's killing me," Cofer said shortly after explaining how her excitement for the pool has slowly dwindled with the constant rise of problems. "Hold them accountable. Listen to the people who go there every day. Listen to the people who swim."
