Inter-Glass walls to installed at Legried pool

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Legried Community Pool in New York Mills is currently undergoing some extensive updates and improvements to renovate and revitalize the 40 plus year old main pool and wading pool. The updates were approved by the City of NY Mills in an effort to update and preserve the pool’s quality for summertime visitors.

The city recently discussed the needs for the pool as it needed further refurbishment and maintenance as the facility is showing its age with structural cracking and a deteriorating pool wall. They chose Mid-America Pool Restoration to update the pool with new Inter-Glass walls to completely renovate the pool.

This option comes at a higher cost of $245,000, but the city was confident this was the better option rather than the lower-cost fixes, which would have worked for a short time, but ultimately would have needed to be replaced before long anyway.

“The project started off with the city receiving a Blandin Foundation grant for $75,000 in 2023,” said City Clerk Julie Roberts. “This was enough to fund the upgrading of the entire pump room and chemical system. I then asked for donations from larger companies in the area to see what kind of support I could come up with to see if we could consider taking the steps to doing the resurfacing portion of the project.

“Local business support was very positive,” Roberts continued. “So we decided to make the investment into this amazing asset that we have here in NY Mills.”

Roberts said that from the total project cost of $245,000, nearly half of that will be covered by local donations totaling $115,000. The remaining $130,000 will be paid out of the city’s capital reserve funds. With a 25-year warranty on the new inter-glass surface, the pool will be safe and inviting for another generation of children within the community.

“The surface will make the use of the pool much nicer for the public,” said Roberts. “The surface will be a lot smoother so it will not be so hard on the feet. The pool is a great asset for our community and provides swimming lessons each summer for to over 300 kids. It also provides endless hours of summer entertainment.”

Kyle Mattson, NY Mills Public Works Director, gave a breakdown of process Mid-American Pool Restoration started at the pool in October.

“The pools are getting their interior coatings removed and replaced,” he said. “Along with adding waterline tile and new depth markers to each. They washed and abraded both pools using a 40,000-psi pressure washer which removed the epoxy paint and old diamond bright coating down to plaster. Next, they will have a crew here to install the new product called Inter-Glass.

“Inter-Glass is a reinforced polymeric system that has tensile and flexural strength of around 300,000 psi,” he said. “This product is specifically designed for outdoor commercial pools with structure cracks like ours has”

Mattson said that the main reasons behind choosing the Inter-Glass system were to stop the cracking and strengthen the entirety of the pool structure to extend its life, as well as to conserve water lost through the cracking throughout the summer.

“We will use less pool chemicals to achieve water-balance due to the molecular makeup of this product versus a traditional aggregate coating,” he continued. “The maintenance will be significantly less and will help with a quicker start-up each season, which will be a huge labor saver for us.”

The season’s weather and temperature will be the deciding factor to whether the work will be completed this fall or if they will need to finish up next spring.

Harley Wurst, who will be in her third year as Pool Manager in 2025, said that these improvements make a large impact on both staff members and families who utilize the pool each summer.

“These pool improvements will be so beneficial in many ways,” she said. “On the summer side of things, it will make a difference in water levels. Typically the pools would lose quite a bit of water throughout the day and at night, so there will be less of a need of filling up the pool throughout the day and having the hose in. This will make it easier for lifeguards because they won’t have to watch for the kids messing with the hose and taking it out of the water. Fresh paint and new waterline tile will also give the pool and new and updated look, which will be exciting for the families and kids.”

Wurst also mentioned the fact that checking the chemical levels will be much easier for her and her staff as well as they additional measuring that the Public Works personnel do throughout the summer.

“With all of the new pumps and equipment from last fall and the new physical pool updates, we should be able to get each pool season going quicker and be open sooner for the public,” she said. “I am so thankful for the hard work that our city does and all that they do to make each pool season possible, none of this could be done without them!”