Swimming Pool

An unscheduled Committee meeting was called at short notice, held in the Bar on Wednesday the 2nd January. It´s purpose was to discuss the repairing of the Swimming Pool. Two members of the Committee did not attend, they were Mrs Shelagh Shaw, due to illness and Mrs Lin Foley in the U.k.

I explained that there had been seven Contractors who had visited the site, one had given us a quote for ad hoc repairs to the pool. I asked them to return to give a quote for a more comprehensive repair, however, to date they have not produced it.

The Committee were unanimous in expressing the view that the pool was a vital part of the Community.

The last company to examine the pool have submitted a quotation to completely rebuild the pool, including raising the floor at the deep end by 80 cm, which would leave the water depth at 2 metres 20 cm, a standard depth. It also included stripping off all the wall tiles, strengthening the walls, replacing all pipework, re-tiling completely, fitting an automatic level system, and replacing the 6 tonnes of special sand in the filters, replacing the stone slabs surrounding the pool fitting underwater lighting and grab rails round the deep end. Also included was re-tiling the children's pool to match.

This work would be backed by a 10 year guarantee. This would be at a cost of Euro 36,000.
The Engineer explained work would take one month to complete, but that they would have to start work before the end of January, as from the first of March they were committed to a long term contract building pools for a new sports urbanisation.

I explained this to the Committee, showing them copies of the quotation. It was also explained that even though 7 different companies had examined the pool, none of them were able to give a definitive answer as to why the pool leaked so badly. It was explained to me that as the pool was around 25 years old, seismic activity, and land movement may well have caused the walls to crack. Indeed there are cracks visible on the floor of the pool. this is why the company would only supply a quote to rebuild and strengthen the pool. Raising the floor level would reduce the amount of water needed to fill the pool by around 25 %.

I explained to the Committee that I would not express an opinion, as it was their responsibility to make any decisions, it was my responsibility to carry them out, I would only vote in the event of a tie.

The Committee were unanimous in their opinion that the pool should be re-built not repaired.

They were unanimous in their desire to accept the quotation of Euro 36,000 backed by a 10 year guarantee.

The question was then asked how we were going to finance this work. I explained that an Owner had approached me with an offer to buy a 50 metre plot plus a parcel of land at the bottom of the park for Euro 30,000.

A vote was taken whether to accept this offer in principle, the results of which were 5 in favour of accepting the offer, 1 abstention, and as explained earlier I did not vote.

After the vote had been taken and recorded, I told the Committee that I was not in favour of selling land, particularly in view of many accusations against Pepe for doing it, but that as they had voted to do so, and that every penny would be spent on the pool, I would investigate the legality of selling the land by consulting Mi Sol Lawyer Rosario. I hope to have a meeting with her this week.

The view was expressed that if all owners paid their Community charges on time, we could easily pay for the pool rebuilding.

Mrs Lynne Jimenez asked if, once the pool was rebuilt could it remain full and not be emptied.
This was agreed by all, in addition it was agreed to keep the pool maintained professionally so that it could be used all year round if Owners wanted to do so. It is well known that swimming pools should not be emptied, as this causes damage to the walls due to the decrease in pressure.

The next Committee meeting is on Tuesday 8th January in the Bar at 4 p.m

It has been suggested to me that when the pool was first built the Committee of the day ignored advice and emptied the pool, and that it has been problematic ever since. Whether this is true or not is open to debate.