Wagner Pool Repairs Need Funding!

What will it take to open Wagner pool for summer 2025?

The Town of Twisp Public Works hired pool contractors to evaluate needs during the 2024 pool closure, determining these repairs would keep Wagner pool physically operational for 5-7 years.

• Roof patches: $10,000 (Complete!)

• Leak detection in the concrete pad/decking: $5,000 (Complete!)

• Leak repairs surrounding the drains: $5,000 (Complete!)

• Electrical Panel replacement: $7,500 (Complete!)

• Liner replacement: $160,000 ($6000 deposit made to reserve spring work)

• Boiler replacement: $25,000 (in 2-3 years)

The Friends of the Pool (FOP) provided $40,000 to Twisp to start these repairs in autumn 2024. Many are complete, as you can see!

In order to reopen THIS year, 2025, the last massive repair to tackle is replacing the pool liner, which costs around $160K. Contractors estimate that this new pool liner will give the community approximately 5-7 years of pool use before it again needs to be replaced. This work is reserved on the contractor’s schedule - we just need to raise the money!  

Plus, FOP provides annual funding to aid the Town of Twisp in paying for the day-to-day staffing, maintenance and operations of the pool.

Keeping Wagner Pool running for a few more years buys us time as a bridge to the next pool. The pool will be run as it is in its current location for that time while FOP simultaneously plans and fundraises for a replacement pool in a different site.

Why do these fixes need to happen (again)? Didn’t the liner just get repaired a few years ago?

Yes, the liner repair only holds back the leaks for 5-7 years - but it’s been 8 since the liner was replaced.

Most simply, through meetings with hydrologists, we’ve learned that the Wagner Pool was built on top of an aquifer, at its location at the confluence of the Twisp and Methow Rivers. This means that as underground water levels fluctuate in the spring and summer along the river, the pool slightly rises and falls too. The pool is made of concrete which is not a flexible material. The fluctuating water levels cause the pool to form small cracks, which have been accumulating over 60 years. This leads to an unnecessary amount of costly repair work which could be avoided in a location with a lower water table or with more modern engineering and material like steel. For ecological and financial reasons, a different location would be far more suitable for a pool.