Employees for the Indiana-based contractor working on the swimming pool left town last weekend, though the company president said they will return after Thanksgiving to fix the “pesky drip” in the new pool lining.

On Monday, public facilities director Ed Coffland noticed that the crew left over the weekend without notifying him or his staff, leaving behind a liner that drips 5-15 gallons of water per day into the basement.

RenoSys president Steve Comstock told the CVN this week that public facilities staff knew his team was leaving Saturday, and even advised them about a ferry schedule. “We never abandoned these people,” he said. “The crew on hand had finished their assigned work and were to wrap-up and leave.”

He said that the workers that left Saturday were not the same workers that installed the liner, and were therefore unable to fix it. RenoSys co-owner Jason Mart will travel to Haines to repair the liner shortly after Thanksgiving, Comstock said.

Comstock expects the problem to be an error with the lining sealer around the drain in the deep end. He said no evidence of tears was reported, and he said he anticipates making repairs without draining the pool.

Since Oct. 24, the borough has been tallying liquidated damages at $1,500 a day for lack of completion. On Friday, that sum will reach four weeks and $42,000, which Comstock said his company will fight.

“That’s ridiculous, they can use the pool,” he said. “It’s been substantially completed.

You’ve got a drip. We’re going to take care of it.”

Comstock said the pool has been swimmable since Oct. 24, but Coffland disagrees.

“From mid-October, they were continually draining it and refilling it so how could anyone swim?’ Coffland said. “If they had the liner fixed it would definitely be substantially complete.”

Coffland said he plans to withhold further payments to RenoSys, roughly $130,000, until the liner is fixed. “If they don’t actually do that, we’ll use this money to pay another contractor to fix it for us,” he said.

The pool could be open as soon as next week, said pool manager Rae Ann Miner. She is waiting on approval of water chemistry from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, due in Thursday.

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