What’s Going on with the Rec Center Hot Tub?

There have been several questions recently on social media and as I’ve been out in Twinsburg as to the status of the Twinsburg Fitness Center hot tub. I reached out to Aquatics Coordinator Branden Burns to get an answer.

Question:

Can you give me a status or history of the hot tub at the fitness center?

Answer:

Twinsburg Aquatics Coordinator Branden Burns:

Greg,

So unfortunately when the building was designed the put the hot tub in the furthest point away from our pumps and filters. Therefore the lines for the hot tub ran around both sides of the pull to the diagonal corner down into the basement. The first lines to go were the lines that controlled the bubbles where the water was fed by an aerator which fed the jets and created the “bubbles” . That is why for a time the tub was operational without the jets. Then a few weeks ago I got a call from staff saying the hot tub was empty. I in a panic had staff check the basement because the hot tub held 1,463 gallons of water. Fortunately the basement was not flooded but just as the jet lines failed the circulation lines failed as well somewhere underneath the pool deck. Now when I say that folks worry about the foundation…..no worries there as it is designed to let water flow out in the event of a catastrophic failure. 

So at this point we had to make a decision to either tear up the entire pool deck be closed for months and put lots of money into the hot tub and also at this point we would need to upgrade the tub to meet the ADA standards that before it was grandfathered in or just remove the tub all together. We decided to remove the tub and down the line we plan on replacing and re engineering the tub so it has its own pumps and filters just outside the front wall and have a building house all of that and it would be easy to fix an issue because it would be a small area of pipe and we would include an access hatch etc. However, though this would be the least expensive and least down time route it is still a costly issue. For now we are going to operate without the tub and get a good solid plan in place and look at this item in 2019 or 2020. From a realistic point of view probably only about 5-7% of members used the hot tub. I think it is a very important component but from a fiscally responsible side we want to have a good solid plan in place a hopefully address this item when it can be one of only a few if not the only maintenance item on the agenda for capital for a specific year.

Thanks,
Branden Burns