Y.M.C.A. Pool Set for Major Makeover

Air quality problems in the pool area at the East Hampton Y.M.C.A. RECenter are to be addressed soon with a two-pronged approach, thanks to fund-raising by the Hampton Lifeguard Association and the center’s board of managers.

While East Hampton Town, which owns the recreation center building and leases it to the Y, recently issued a $750,000 bond to replace heating, water, and dehumidification systems, a secondary, ultraviolet disinfection system will also be installed, said Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

The secondary system will eliminate a buildup of chlorine, Dick Monahan, a member of the Y board of managers, told the board. Chlorine is considered to be at least in part responsible for the respiratory symptoms that swimmers, and their parents, have complained of.

The lifeguard association will purchase and donate the equipment to the town, and the town, said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, will spend some $8,500 for engineering on the system, and will seek bidders on its installation.

According to its contract with the Y, the town contributes $590,000 annually toward the center’s operating expenses; capital improvements to the building are paid for separately.

The agreement calls for earnings above and beyond the Y’s annual budget to be returned to the town, and Glenn Vickers, the center’s executive director, recently announced that a $29,000 overage will be returned. The town’s costs for the ultraviolet system will be taken from that amount, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

Complaints about the indoor air quality at the RECenter pool have been widespread for the last several years. Last spring, the town had D.B. Bennett, a consulting engineering firm, assess the building’s condition and develop a prioritized list of maintenance tasks and capital improvement projects, along with cost estimates. 

Swimmers have reported symptoms that have been ascribed to heavy use of the center’s two pools and a lack of adequate ventilation, especially in winter. In 2013, county health officials who tested the pool water, but not the air, found no public health hazard, but the complaints continued.

According to John Ryan Sr., a member of the Y’s board, an anonymous donor has agreed to underwrite the $3 million to $4 million cost of building a new pool. That project has not been publicly discussed.