Had anyone been on a particular piece of Bridgeport property recently, they may have witnessed a group of men gathered around a hole in the ground. And had they gotten closer, they would have witnessed a man crawling around the front  of that hole in the ground and under a concrete deck.

 

As it turns out, it wasn’t part of any cross border action between Bridgeport and Clarksburg or anything illegal. Rather, it was the final touches on a problem that has been plaguing the Bridgeport City Pool to the tune of thousands of dollars over the past few years.

 

“The work involved finishing welding the cracks, or the stainless steel box, where the leaks were occurring,” said Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton.

 

The leaks in question were noticed during the 2013 pool season as water bills to the pool proved to be significantly higher. The issue, once it was determined a leak was causing the problem, is that the leak couldn’t be located.

 

Once the most recent pool season ended, city staff began the difficult process of finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack.” And in early September, on their second try of breaking concrete around the pool deck, the struck gold – or in this case a whole lot of water.

 

Although the majority of the leak has been repaired, the final touches required the delicate touch of Christian Marsh of Quality Machine. Marsh not only determined how to do the final work Burton described above, but was the individual who burrowed himself slighlty underground to do the fix.

 

“(Christian) put an epoxy coat underneath the gutter in the area where they couldn’t reach to repair it,” said Burton. “That was the one way to do it. That wraps things up with the project.”

 

Burton said the repairs that have been done during the last month and a half should guarantee no more leaks – at least nothing in the same area. The best thing, he said, was that the problem didn’t interrupt the pool serving city resident and others.

 

“We’re fairly confident that it’s fixed and we’re fairly confident no one noticed we had a leak. It was business as usual. The only people who knew there were problems with a leak are the ones that had read about us waiting until the end of the pool year to fix it on Connect-Bridgeport,” said Burton. “At the same time, you’re looking at water losses in the range of $5,000 and that’s something you just can’t dismiss.”

 

Burton said things should be back to normal when the 2015 season begins.

 

“We’re hoping for no runs, drips, leaks or errors,” Burton said with a laugh.