Fort council looks at pool liner to fix leak

FORT RECOVERY - Village councilors learned Monday the Fort Recovery pool has a 40-foot-long crack in its south wall, causing a loss of about 500,000 gallons of water a month.

Councilors heard from village administrator Aaron Rengers that in a recent pool leak detection report done by a diving team, it was reported that the village's pool structure and pressure system failed.

"From his report, it looks like the easy fix would be putting a liner in and at least trying that and seeing what it does," Rengers said. "He seems to think the biggest leak would be in that south wall along the pool. There's about a 40-foot-long crack and there's also a hole that he said he could stick his finger in. A liner, I'm guessing, would help that. And then we can see if it saves us, even 200,000 gallons a month."

He advised that he will contact area pool builders to see if they recommend a pool liner, which he estimated could cost around $50,000.

"Well we have that grant. (If we) put that money into it and at least say get another seven years out of that pool, it'd be fantastic," Rengers said.

Officials currently have $441,000 in state funding available for a pool project. They initially received that award in 2024. However, it must be spent by Dec. 31, 2027, or they will forfeit the state grant.

Also on Monday, councilors suspended the three-reading rule and approved an emergency ordinance accepting the annexation of .709 acres of land off of Wabash Road in Recovery Township owned by into the village.

The annexation will go into effect 30 days from its acceptance.

Rengers said there are two other pending annexations to address before village officials move forward with the long awaited Community Reinvestment Area.

In other business, councilors heard from Rengers that Milestone Construction will mobilize the waterline extension project during week of the Thanksgiving.

"They are projecting the waterline to be wrapped up in three weeks," he said. "They are wanting to close First Street for three days to install the waterline."

He added that First Street would be open to school buses during school hours. A more detailed timeline will be shared closer to the project start date.

The project, which would extend the town's water and sanitary line to multiple recently annexed properties, was approved by the EPA. A right-of-way acquisition was also obtained for the project.

Councilors awarded a $127,105.90 bid in September to Milestone Construction of Troy to extend a water line down the north side of State Route 119 to a newly annexed property, and down First Street to cross Wabash Road.