Attention, swimmers: Here’s when Bluffton pool will reopen following new plan for roof
Almost three months after Bluffton’s indoor pool closed its doors, county officials announced a new plan that they estimate will get families back in the water by August.
The pool was closed in February after an inspection as part of the county’s “master plan” to update all four of its pools revealed that the roof at the Bluffton pool on Pritchard Street was in danger of collapsing in high winds or heavy rainfall. The new plan, announced this week via press release, involves replacing roof panels and structural roof clips and would cost less than a previous proposal which would have seen the roof removed altogether.
“The current construction market is full of surprises,” Jared Fralix, assistant county administrator, said in the press release. “The contractor developed a cost-effective construction plan that enabled us to replace the Bluffton Pool roof and be $100,000 under budget.”
The previous plan to remove the roof was estimated to have cost over $1 million, according to Beaufort County spokesperson Chris Ophardt. The new plan, which will cost approximately $900,000, was devised when the county’s contractor, C.E. Bourne & Co., a roofing company in Greenwood, South Carolina, said it could refurbish the existing structure for less money.
“The beams weren’t necessarily the problem, it was the clips that held the roof to the beams,” Ophardt said. “[The cost of the new plan is] just what’s available and what we can get currently with the way the construction market really works.”
If the estimate had taken place six months from now, Ophardt said, the contractor told them they might have a different answer in terms of options and pricing. The money for the new plan will come from a surplus in the county’s 2022 budget.
While the roof is refurbished, programs like the Bluffton Fins swim team and children’s swim lessons have been moved to different pools in Beaufort County, Ophardt said. The Lowcountry Autism Foundation, a program that offers free resources for families with children who have autism, was also practicing at the pool when it closed. For logistical reasons for parents and the swim instructor, they cannot travel to Beaufort for their lessons, said Sophia Townes, the organizer for the foundation’s free swim program in Beaufort County. They have been using the pool of a private homeowner.
“The homeowner who has been allowing us to do this just sold their house,” Townes said. “They’ve been extremely accommodating to us. Right now, we are at the mercy of when the pool reopens.”
Townes decided to put the lessons on hold until the Bluffton pool reopens. She is “empathetic to stress on families” who are struggling to find solutions for their children because she has two sons with autism and knows the worries that come in summer as families are around water more often. Children with autism are “drawn to the water,” Townes said, and can be an elopement risk, meaning that they wander off, which in “Beaufort County where we’re surrounded by water” has the potential to be life-threatening. There are approximately 3,960 fatal child drownings in the United States every year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children with autism are 160 times more likely to die from drowning than other children, according to statistics from Columbia University.
“It’s so important we get these kids swimming; their lives depend on it,” Townes said.
