Resurfacing project completed; reopening could be as soon as Dec. 1

By Mike Wood

Staff writer

Wednesday, November 26 (2:00 p.m.): The wait is almost over for the reopening of the indoor Tice Pool facility.

Reopening of the Tice pools is anticipated as early as Dec. 1, once the permit process is complete, said RWC Director of Community Services Ann Mottola.

The two indoor pools and a spa, which are part of the Fitness Center complex, have been closed since early October for a replastering project.

After the replastering work was completed, the pools were filled with water, and a process of balancing pool water components such as alkalinity and pH began. This process can take up to four weeks.

A Contra Costa County inspection took place Nov. 20, and with a county permit in hand, an inspection by the city of Walnut Creek was to be scheduled. Once a city permit is obtained, the Tice pools can reopen. When the reopening date becomes clear, it will be announced via a Nixle alert.

The RWC Board approved the $222,000 project, being done by Chambers Pool Inc., in April.

During the project, a group of water aerobics classes were moved outdoors to Dollar Pool, and lap swim and Masters swimming took place at Hillside. Once Tice Pools are reopened, Dollar and Hillside pools will be closed, as usual, for the winter months.

Those two outdoor pools also got heavy late-year usage in 2024, when Tice pool roof panel repairs were made. That process provided a blueprint for smoothly shifting classes outdoors this time.

“The transition to moving operations outwards to Hillside and Dollar pools was fairly smooth,” Jackie Carlisle, RWC fitness and aquatics manager, said at the Nov.13 meeting of the Aquatics and Fitness Advisory Committee.

Mottola praised the RWC Facilities team, which has taken advantage of opportunities during the closure to make maintenance fixes such as seals around the pool area.

“What’s really great is the facilities team,” Mottola told the committee. “They’ve been in there, and while the pumps are off for a while, sometimes you’ll see things which they can get ahead of. So, when we’re open, we’re good to go.”

During the Nov. 14 Fitness and Aquatics Advisory Committee meeting, Mottola provided the committee with a “deep dive” overview of the Fitness and Aquatics Department, created in 2023 by merging Fitness and Aquatics, formerly two separate entities.

There’s been a notable increase in classes offered in the past couple of years, growing from around 12 class types to around two dozen now.

In addition to the growth of class offerings, there’s been a recent influx of new users of the Fitness Center – 646 new clients came in July through October. In turn, the parking lot has become more impacted, especially around 9 a.m., the peak hour for Fitness Center usage.

“The upside is we’re offering programs that people are responsive to,” Mottola said. “And we have new users.”

However, some would-be users of the Fitness Center have given up trying to find a parking space when the lot nears capacity.

“We’ve heard of too many people that will drive and just circle the parking lot, and they go back home,” Mottola said.

Solving this won’t be a Band-Aid, but rather an evolution, she said, involving spacing out some class times away from peak hours.

Also, committee members discussed adding more content on Rossmoor TV, perhaps a refresher course on swim basics and safety.

“There are a lot of things we could do on Rossmoor Television which would be very helpful; for example, basic water safety,” Committee Chair Barry Devine said.

A Nov. 12 story in the Rossmoor News, written by committee member Mary Lou Thompson as part of the rebranded Rossmoor Fitness Journeys (formerly Wall of Fame), was praised by Thompson’s fellow committee members, who appreciated the story and how it mentioned a Fitness Center class for those with Parkinson’s disease.