Ground testing pauses concrete pouring for now
For many in the small town of Spur, a donation from Dickens County’s newest corporate citizen, crytpocurrency firm Argo Blockchain, is almost as welcome as news of rain. The water will come—this summer, it’s expected—in the form of the city’s renovated 1936 WPA swimming pool.
“Texas Update!” @Argo-Blockchain tweeted March 3. “Back in October, we announced a community service project where Argo would refurbish the Spur community pool in Dickens County (where our new facility is located). Today we’re excited to announce that construction is officially underway!” Followers shared the cheer with social media likes.
Concrete forms had been poured for a smaller-footprint pool inside the shell of the old one this month when Spur mayor Louise Jones reported in the March 15 city council that work was pausing for groundpenetrating radar to confirm the nature of any possible void in the earth underneath the existing pool. Reports done at the time of the pool’s closure in 2009 indicated this might be the cause of a leak.
Argo spokesperson Barbara Bogart confirmed that the test had been done last Friday and that results were forthcoming.
Pool contractor Kevin Romero of Luxe Pools said that there are remedies, if a problem is found. Renderings produced by architect Zac Garth of WCA Design Studio, Lubbock, on display at city hall, indicate a single pool that Romero described as 42 x 60 feet.
Meanwhile, work is pro gressing on the WPA-built bathhouse, with doors and windows repaired, trash removed and paint priming almost done, wiring and new ceiling installed, and plumbing under way.
Plumbing contractor Phil Kerr praised the original workmanship of the structure, whose solid bathroom stall walls he said ensured that the building would survive to be functional again nearly 90 years later. Kerr said that he would be installing all new urinals, toilets, and showers and quality chrome fixtures, as part of the overall upgrades, which also include the concession stand.
The bathhouse was funded by private donations and periodic city funds that had accumulated since the time the pool closed.
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