Thursday, April 03, 2008

OUR POOL FACILITY ISSUE
January of 2002 General Manager Dave Fletcher received four bids to reconstruct our Village’s outdoor pool.
February 27th, 2002 General Manager Fletcher states the bid of $107,850 was awarded to South Texas Pools and they will start within a week with a completion date scheduled May 1, 2002.
On October 7th 2002 management requested South Texas Pools to repair and “touch up” pieces of the bottom cracking and coming apart.
December 18th, 2002 in an attempt to rectify the numerous complaints about the pool being filthy and the chemicals causing problems, our Board passed a motion to acquire three bids to outsource the pool maintenance?
On January 22th, 2003 the management apologized for the many pool problems and that pool maintenance bids have been solicited
On April 23rd, 2003, management had A.N.A. Laboratories test our pool water. The results were never published. During this time management also started advertising for Certified Pool Operators and had no response.
May 23rd, 2003 management hired an employee to maintain the pools from 5am to 1:30pm and plans will be made for him to take and pass a pool certification course.
August 22nd, 2003 certification for this employee has been put on hold because management says the Department of Health has to get a minimum of twenty people to sign up in order to have a certification course.
On February 5th, 2004 the Board looked into the idea of spa covers and found them not feasible.
May 26th, 2004 the exhaust fan and a sliding door were not working and were asked to be fixed. Shower in the lady’s restroom was replaced for the indoor pool.
July 28th, 2004 the indoor pool replaced one set of belts for the retractable roof at a cost of over $1000.
July 28th, 2004 the outdoor pool bottom has had pieces again breaking up for over a year and will be repaired in the coming winter still under South Texas pools warranty.
August 28th, 2004 a new General Manager Larry DeMalade was introduced as the new G.M.
January 26th, 2005 the outdoor pool’s bottom is under warranty repair
June 22nd, 2005 maintenance replaced tile behind Library at the outdoor pool.
August 24th, 2005 pool furniture was agreed to budget for spring by the Board.
September 28, 2005 maintenance installed two new pumps and changed filter sand for the Indoor pool.
October 26th, 2005 an additional gate was installed at the northeast corner of the outdoor pool. New signs were put up. Outdoor pool bathrooms were remodeled.
November 16th, 2005 maintenance replaced the drain for outdoor pool shower and replaced “a filter" (probably the sand in the filter) to the outdoor pool.
April 26th, 2006, for the third time, the outdoor pool has had numerous pieces breaking off the bottom for the last year. It is scheduled for again a major patchwork of the bottom. This will be the third incident and the second time that approximately 100,000 gallons of water will have to be drained. A Director asked management why the pool needs to be resurfacing when it was put in new three or fours years ago. Management’s answer was the original pool contractor had too few workers and was working in sections letting the plaster dry out too long and become delaminated.
May 24th, 2006 maintenance brought in gravel and pipe to repair the outdoor pool shower for the second time.
June 28th, 2006 a gazebo was brought in. Gravel and new drain pipe to replace outdoor pool backwash drain that was broken by the truck that brought in gazebo. It was mentioned management is still working with the manufacturer who made the material we bought and management thinks our Village didn’t get what we paid for. Management said either it will be replaced or have patchwork done.
August 23rd, 2006 the construction for the middle area of the pool started. This included new concrete poured on common areas, addition of a fountain, new fence around pool perimeter, and refurbishing the gazebo. New showers were put in the indoor pool bathrooms, lights put on roof to light pool area, and cool deck applied. New thermostat for the indoor pool was installed and management said it was set at 88 degrees because higher will start building bacteria. Management addressed a drainage problem behind the gazebo.
December 20th, 2006 our General Manager was asked if there was a warranty for work on the bottom of the outdoor pool that still needs to be repaired. The General Manager said no, no longer in warranty. The G.M. said the patch work will be around $3500. Have proof that they used the proper material but procedure was wrong, but that was before I came here.
December 20th, 2006 it was asked if our Village could go after the contractor. This item was taken up with the Village’s attorney Ramona Kantack. Outcome is unknown by us.
January 24th, 2007 our Hospitality Manager Les Heier stated no more complaints have been received, so must be doing okay. He said he put an ad in the paper for more help.
February 28th, 2007 maintenance installed new outdoor hot tub heater and installed new indoor hot tub blower.
March 28th, 2007 the Board president questioned pool maintenance. Indoor pool and hot tubs under went an acid wash and new filters (probably meant replaced the sand in the filters) installed.
April 25th, 2007 our management is getting bids for solar heat for the outdoor pool.
May 23rd, 2007 a motion to accept the $2900 solar heat bid died due to a lack of a 2nd motion.
June 27th, 2007 the indoor pool restrooms were being remodeled. Money to replace the pool furniture was brought up again.
August 29th, 2007 our Hospitality Manager stated that we had some pool issues in the month of July. He has been training Maria Onofre on the chemicals and getting the problems under control. We are looking into installing an automated chemical feed system and just cleaning the pools with housekeeping.
August 29th, 2007 General Manager said to all present that Berry Pools gave their bid and presentation at the Workshop. It was said this would save our village 30% on chemical cost. Motion was passed to accept this bid.
February 2008 maintenance replaced indoor spa blowers and found water leaks for the pool and hot tubs.
I've found these to be most of the repairs that have happened to our pool facilities from 2002 until present. We are now currently being asked to pay over $30,000 to repair the outdoor pool bottom again along with some pumbing upgrades.

I question the cavalier manner to which Village management has approached this six year problem. This bottom application had problems since the beginning. Our Village paid a lot more to have this type of bottom coat added. It was installed because our Village was told it by South Texas Pools that it would last a lot longer than the normal plastered application. It didn't even last four months.
Dave Fletcher was our General Manager at the beginning of this project . Now I have to say that I would be the first not to want to inherit someone else’s mistakes or problems, but our current management was running this park for five months before they supervised the second large patchwork nearly four years ago. This patchwork was done while still under South Texas Pools warranty.
The problem with the pool bottom seemed very apparent and it was also no secret that South Texas Pools did the application to the bottom incorrectly.
Why in the world wasn't something done to correct this problem before the warranty ended? Why wasn't South Texas Pools asked to redo the whole bottom when it appeared unfixable. Should we owners just say “oh well” and “how much?”
Should we find out what our attorney said after being asked about going after the contractor on December 20th, 2006?
Should we ask how many bids did our management receive for their new $30,000 + project?
What other questions should we ask? Leave a comment.

3 comments:

spa day said...

It`s been a while since I have complimented the board for anything. Its not because I haven't appreciated their efforts. I guess its because there was always a tremendous amount of chit chat and long winded explanations for the same problems over and over.
I am perpared to thank our new board for my renewed excitement in our future of LIV. Its seems to be a NO NONSENSE BOARD. Less words and more action. LET`S GET IT DONE!
No request is to small. No idea is not worth responding to.
Thank you
and Thanks for the opportunity to post this comment.

Trudy C

Anonymous said...

My concern would be the renewal of the Aramark Contract. I see that the majority of the voters say no. People must remember that the GM is not Aramark, but an employee of Aramark. If we don't like the GM, change that person, not the company. The parks needs a management company and Aramark was the best out there for our needs at the time. Have an open mind when it comes to management companies and make sure to see what management company fits our needs.

Anonymous said...

It has certainly been interesting to see Armando with the new pool guy, Carr. Never saw him before with any of the other pool people. Carr's doing a great job. It's nice to have someone who has some experience with pools. I hope he works out. If you haven't been to the pools and hot tubs, check them out.