Large pipe burst forces temporary Aquatic Park closure
By Cameron Montemayor
Local pool-goers will temporarily be without one aquatic facility just as the summer pool season ramps up across St. Joseph.
St. Joseph’s Aquatic Park at 402 S. Noyes Boulevard was forced to close after a large pipe at the pool’s pump station burst on Saturday right after its first session of the season.
A large 10-inch-wide pipe gave way after pool employees attempted to shut off the pool’s pumps, causing hundreds of gallons of water from the lazy river to rush back into the pump station all at once.
”It just split off right there at the wall. And before they could get out of that room, they were in thigh-deep water,” Assistant Parks Director Jeff Atkins said. “Our aquatics manager got the power shut off to the building and got the kids out of there first thing.”
No one was injured during the incident.
Parks staff had to move quickly, spending nearly all of Saturday and Sunday pumping out all of the water in the station to allow for repairs and partial replacement to begin today.
”They also had to dig up behind the building to find where the pipe that had broken inside the building came out,” Atkins said. “They had to cut it outside the building and replace everything that went through the wall.”
Park officials are hopeful to have the facility back up and running within the next seven to 10 days.
Five of the pump station’s motors were also flooded as a result. Staff are currently air-drying the motors with the hopes of salvaging them and testing them by the end of the week.
St. Joseph resident Tarla Leeson was surprised to see the pool was closed for the first day of the season when she pulled up to the front gate with family on Monday.
“We’re hoping that it opens quickly,” she said.
In light of the closure, the city has extended the hours at Krug Pool to include both Saturday and Sunday until repair work at the Aquatic Park is complete.
“I know the public’s disappointed. We’re probably more disappointed. We don’t like to see our facilities broken down and our guys really work hard to keep them up and running,” Atkins said.
Krug Pool — which opened for its final season on Sunday — will be open on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and again from 3 to 5:45 p.m., as well as Sunday from 1:30 to 4:15 p.m.
Krug Pool is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. and from 2:30 to 5:15 p.m.
Once the Aquatic Park re-opens, Krug Pool will revert back to its normal Monday through Friday hours of operation.
The Liberty Oak Splash park is also currently open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The Thomas Eagleton Indoor Pool at Missouri Western is now closed for the season and is set to open in August.
