Providence Firm Could Save EPHS Pool

A Providence-based pool specialist company is evaluating the condition of the East Providence High School pool after the school engineers determined it needed $3.7 million in renovations.

The School Committee voted to close the deteriorating EPHS pool at the end of the 2012-13 school year tomorrow following the diagnosis by the school's architectural firm, Symmes Maini & McKee Associates, that the pool would need extensive and expensive repairs to be brought up to modern standards, reports the East Providence Post.

The third party firm from Providence could keep the doors of the high school pool open if its engineers determine that the building and facility is structurally sound. The firm reached out the school after hearing of its need to close the pool because it could not afford the nearly $4 million in renovations.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, June 26, the firm will reportedly bring in its own engineers to inspect the pool and determine whether it can be maintained at a lower cost.

During a brief walk-through last week, the Providence firm found the bulidng and pool deck servicable and said the repairs to the pool itself could likely be done for $400,000 to $600,000. Its engineers will evaluate the condition today during an 8 - 10 hour inspection.