Ringgold swimmers preparing for season without home pool

By Jose Negron

jnegron@yourmvi.com

As the Ringgold swimming team prepares for its winter season in the aftermath of a three-week government mandated shutdown, it is faced with the tall task of doing so without access to its own pool.

Ringgold Athletic Director Laura Grimm said late last season the district became aware of a leak somewhere in the pool. 

The severity wasn’t immediately known until a couple of outside companies were brought in to inspect it. 

“Unfortunately, where they are pinpointing the leak is actually beneath the foundation, so it’s a really difficult item to fix. It’s not something superficial that is a quick fix and then you’re up and running again,” Grimm said. 

With only a short amount of time remaining in the swim team’s season, the district planned on simply getting through the remainder of the campaign before formulating a plan to fix the pool. 

A plan was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down in March. 

“On the one hand, that kind of worked out for us because everything was shut down and we didn’t have to worry about it for too long, but on the flip side, that also stalled out our ability to move forward with the construction and the project of getting the pool repaired,” Grimm said. “With something of that magnitude, we were going to have to go out to bid and we were going to have to have a whole spec of the entire project put together. That’s, unfortunately, something that takes several months to complete.”

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