The Mayor directed city staff to begin doing research on the construction costs of an indoor swimming pool facility and the operation and maintenance costs of such a facility.  The Mayor is also assembling a task force of citizens with peninsula wide representation to determine the direction we should go with this project.  Any decision by the task force and the City will require significant information and these decisions should not be made in haste, or without sufficient data and factual information.

Mrs. Oller was specific in her desire to make sure the City can support the pool’s ongoing operation, in fact she asked to have a realistic, and funded five year O&M budget for the pool in place prior to construction.  Basic indoor pool operation and maintenance costs around $14 a square foot the first five years plus the staffing costs ($140,000 a year for a 10,000 square foot facility and staffing approximately $100,000 per year), $18 a square foot the next five years plus staff ($180,000 and staffing costs of approximately $100,000 per year) and it goes up from that point.  At the ten year point you start to have to make significant upgrades and replacement costs plus the cost of labor will most likely be greater.

The cost of construction is another significant number, ranging from $180 to $300 a square foot with a basic small pool around 10,000 square feet.  In a 10,000 SF facility you could have a 25 yard 6 lane lap pool, a family fun pool about the same size as the lap pool.  This fun pool could have a water slide and other family fun amenities.   And finally a small hydro-therapy pool, plus the locker rooms, equipment and utility rooms and small open space.  The following is some basic background and information on such a facility:

• Design of indoor swimming pools is very different from that of outdoor ones as indoor pools are not subject to the dust and dirt that attacks outdoor pools. But they do require room ventilation to control humidity and maintain a comfortable atmosphere. Without a proper ventilation system, high indoor humidity levels will cause numerous problems, especially in heated pools, including condensation on cold surfaces and rusting of structural components.

• Community swimming pools are designed for use by children and infants, and hence need to have safety as paramount right from the beginning. The design of these pools will have a strong emphasis on anti-entrapment techniques, so that a safe environment is available for the youngest swimmers. The other challenge is to incorporate very shallow areas like the toddlers pools along with deep area pools required for other swimming activities and even swimming competitions.

• Specific Types of Recreational Pools Include:

Multi-Purpose – Including areas for all users including lap lanes for recreational or competitive swimming,                 use for water aerobics (hydro pools with sufficient depth and size are used for this function also), water polo                     and other swimming activities.

Children’s Play Pool or leisure pools – Including either zero-depth or very shallow water to around 18                       inches of water. These pools will typically have interactive wet play elements such as water buckets, cannons,              and sprays and climb-on structures featuring slides and other interactive water play elements.

Hydrotherapy pools – Are pools that are run at a higher temperature than normal pools and also have water            massage jets and other water features. The temperature is set just about body temperature so that you have a                warm feeling and the moving water massages you in a way that only water can. The water gives you buoyancy           that takes the tension off most parts of the body.  The movement of the hot water in a hydrotherapy pool is                         enough in many cases to provide relief for arthritis and similar pains.  Unlike traditional hot tubs, the                                  hydrotherapy pool can be significantly larger and have depths up to three and a half to four feet.

The City is working as fast as it can to make the best decision to move forward with the dream Verna Oller had, she understood very well that it will take time and gave the City five years to make this dream become a reality.  The City of Long Beach is in the process of doing this at this time.

Cuando me juego hasta este blog, me puse una meta para el blog era para eso para dar salida a mí para mantener al público en general información actualizada sobre cuestiones que enfrenta la Ciudad. Pero cuando veo otros blogs me di cuenta de un blog puede ser realizado por el gobierno local y participación de muchos otros asuntos que van más allá de las cuestiones de la ciudad “e incluso un buen rato con muchos temas. No es un buen ejemplo de esto en un blog hecho por el alcalde de Lamont, Washington, que se puede encontrar en:

http://www.lamont-wa.blogspot.com/

Si vas a este blog en el que será muy entretenido, divertido de leer y escrito por un autor de gran talento. Nunca pretendería igualdad de habilidades de escritura en el blog de Lamont, pero puedo tratar de incursionar en otros temas que las cosas no siempre tienen un paralelo directo con el gobierno municipal.

En los últimos blogs Lamont han tenido un emparejamiento en curso con Long Beach en lo maravilloso y lo bien que ejecuta Long Beach es, que es halagador para decir lo menos, y muy divertido de leer. Así que para probar el divertido blog Lamont, es divertido y muy interesante.

When I set up this blog, one goal I set for the blog was for it to provide an outlet for me to keep the general public updated on issues facing the City. But as I look at other blogs I realized a blog can be done by local government and involve many other issues that go beyond just “city issues” and even have some fun with many issues. There is a good example of this on a blog done by the Mayor of Lamont, Washington, which can be found at:

http://www.lamont-wa.blogspot.com/

If you go to this blog you will find it very entertaining, fun to read and written by a very talented author. I would never pretend to equal the Lamont blog’s writing skills, but I may try to venture into things other issues that always don’t have a direct parallel to city government.

In the recent Lamont blogs they have had an ongoing paring with Long Beach on how wonderful and how well run Long Beach is, which is flattering to say the least, and very funny to read. So for fun try the Lamont blog, it is fun and very interesting.

We are sure there will be many new visitors to your community and the visitors at all times of the year will be a benefit to all of us that live here.

The new Wyndham facility has already involved themselves in local organization and the addition of the new transit room tax will help us in developing our visitor base. 

Again, we thank Wyndam for locating on the Long Beach  Peninsula and wish them great success.

The smaller virsion of the file is at http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/animations/animation_lb.mov

The web page for the animations is at http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/animate.html

The easist link may well be the last one.

Again, it is always a good idea to determine your best route of evacuation as experts tell us we may have between 15 to 30 minutes after this very big earthquake before the first wave of the tsunami hits the peninsula.

The concern by the writer of the letter was the locked gates involving City property that is located on higher ground.  The answer has two aspects, that is to say, if we have a tsunamis that is generated by a “distant event” (as an example an earthquake in Alaska) we should have about three hours warning and all of the city gates will be unlocked, plus there is a great deal of other high ground that one can go to for safety.  The second aspect is a local earthquake, one that is generated by the movement of the tectonic plates just a few miles off shore.  In this situation we will have from 15 minutes to maybe 25 minutes before the first wave hits.  In addition we will have experience an earthquake as large as a magnitude 9 with up to 5 minutes of shaking.  This is the big one and we do not mean to scare everyone, but most likely we will all be on foot and we will need to find the highest ground we can – locked gates will not matter as we will go around them or over them.

To make everyone feel a bit safer, the fact is our greatest chance of a tsunamis is the distant event, and in that case we will have the gates open and there will be police officers and other city officials helping direct traffic and deal with other issues as they happen.  With the construction of our new water plant site we hope to have an evacuation meeting area established in the water plant area.  This is presently under development and will be ready to use in another year or so.

Another critical issue is your own personal safety or survival kit.  Please put one together and make sure you have a good flashlight or two, plus batteries.  Also some water and other items listed in the attached brochures are very important.

If you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact city hall at 360-642-4421 and we will do our best to answer your questions.  

tsunami_evac_op.pdf      tsunami_evac_lb.pdf

Tsunami Evacuation Plan

§         Public workshop, June 24 at 7:00 p.m.

§         Planning Commission public hearing, July 8 at 7:00 p.m.

§         City Council public hearing, July 28 at 7:00 p.m.

§         City Council, final adoption, date TBD 

All meetings will be held in the City Council chambers at City Hall,

   Comments on the draft Comprehensive Plan can be made:

§         By attending any of the public meetings

§         By mail to City of Long Beach, PO Box 310, Long Beach, WA  98631

§         By fax to (360)642-8841

§         By e-mail to planner@longbeachwa.gov (please put “Comprehensive Plan” in the subject line)  For more information, contact Kaye Simonson, Community Development Director, at (360)642-4421. Thank you.