The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Big Sandy received the following letter from the State of Montana Public Health and Sanitarian, Staci Evangeline. “Can you tell me what year the Big Sandy pool was built and any years it had major changes? We need to determine what rules apply to it.”

“I spoke with the state pool program lead about the turnover rate for your pool. Our recommendation would be to contact a pool technician to assess your situation and determine exactly what the fix might be. If no actions are being taken to address the issue we will not be able to continue licensing the pool. Please respond to this email by 7-29-19 to let us know what steps you plan on taking.”

I visited with Mayor Shaud Schwarzbach, who said the pool repair discussion would be brought to the next city council meeting on August 15. “I believe we have funds there to once again a band-aid for the pool. Otherwise, the state is pretty serious, and for a good reason. When you are talking about health standards and sanitary reasons you can’t play with that. They’ve been good to us for the past 15 years or more where we have skirted the edge. That is the reason we have had to close the pool several times because when you can’t turn the water around fast enough, the filters don’t work and the water becomes milky.”

Mayor Schwarzbach continued, “This will be good, we will do the repairs as cost-effective as possible, with approval of the full council. Just guessing, we haven’t gotten any real exact bids, but it’s probably going to be another $30,000 to keep it within regulations. We have some funds and will apply for a grant. We’ll figure it out, but it’s got to the point, of how many times can we do this. One of these time, we won’t be able to fix it. We have to plan better, have to plan better for our future.”

“It has been a great facility. Wonderful things have happened because of it. It is well used in the community. What is our final solution to replace it? The community did speak on the minimal information, and based on the information they got, they spoke what they wanted. We need to make adjustments. They wanted us to have more planning and search for more grants. Before we go back to the public, we want to show we listened and that we are

going to take the steps they wanted us to take before we approach them again for something of a smaller scale. “

“Our guys will do the work this fall. It means taking riping out cement decks and replacing it with new plumbing, new pumps, and new filters. They will do a good job.”