Cordova's broken pool feeds a push to merge its aging rec buildings

Cordova's public pool is holding water at 81 degrees but sitting unsanitized, with no reopening date. Its boiler and heat exchanger are at the end of their lives and can't run two days straight without quitting, the parks and recreation director told the commission Tuesday.

The city is waiting on parts and wants a full week of uninterrupted operation before letting swimmers back. Pass holders don't yet know whether they'll be refunded; the director warned the city likely can't return a full year's cost.

The broken pool is the sharp end of a bigger problem: two aging rec buildings that cost too much to heat, badly. "We're heating them, we're inefficiently heating them," she said. That's driving a plan to merge the Bidarki Recreation Center and the pool into one facility. Consultants found the combined building won't fit at the Bidarki site but will at the pool's, with a master plan — now including a walking track above the gym and pool — due in November.

Nothing is funded, and a federal grant the city sought fell through.