The City of Redmond is working on finalizing a contract with WAVE Aquatics to manage the operations and programs at the Redmond Pool at Hartman Park, which has been closed since mid-June for safety repairs.

The Redmond City Council is expected to vote in favor of the final contract, sometime later this month or early in October.

The city, which owns the 40-year-old building, will continue to maintain the pool, while WAVE will be in charge of offering programs and managing the pool staff.

“We’re happy from the standpoint we can do a good job managing the pool for the City of Redmond while meeting the Eastside aquatic needs,” said Jeff Burn, president of the board for WAVE Aquatics. “The pool serves different users — an important one is swim lessons for the younger and older people wanting to learn to swim. That’s a very important function that we will be providing the community.”

Besides swim lessons, Burn said the pool will also feature open swim time for the community, water aerobics and other programs. In addition, Burn said city residents will get a 20 percent discount on programs offered at the Redmond Pool. The Redmond and Eastlake High swim teams will also use the pool once it re-opens, Burn said.

Chosen as the highest responsible bidder through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, WAVE is set to take over management of the pool once the council votes in favor of the finalized contract, according to Mark Hickok, Redmond’s Recreation Division assistant manager who is supervising the pool repairs.

The pool remains closed and an exact re-opening date is still unclear as city workers and subcontractors continue to repair the outdated, deteriorating pool. Deciding on a new pool operator was a huge step to get the pool back up and running, said Hickok, who declined to release details about the contract with WAVE Aquatics until it was finalized.

Redmond Pool will be the second Eastside pool operated by WAVE Aquatics, which currently operates the Juanita High School Pool. In addition, WAVE Aquatics already rented the Redmond Pool for its swim teams and programs before it closed.

The Juanita Pool is similar to the Redmond Pool in size and age, so WAVE Aquatics will be a good fit, Hickok said.

“They know the pool, they know the clientele and they know the community,” Hickok said of WAVE Aquatics. “They already have programming designed for that size pool. They know what they are doing.

“Their heart is in the right place,” Hickok added. “They want to keep pools open and running and available to the entire public.”

Burn said once the repairs are done, the facility will be much improved and more efficient to manage.

“It will make the pool easier to operate,” he said of the city’s repair project. “It will be a nicer facility for the community. People are going to enjoy going there.”

Now the next big step in pool repairs is the drain replacement project. The drain work will include using a jackhammer to move the pool drains down deeper and closer together in order to meet new federal regulations. Request for bids for that project were faxed out last Friday, Hickok said. The bids are due back Sept. 15 and after that the city will decide who will take on that project. At that point, the city will have a better idea of when exactly the pool will be open, Hickok said.

Northwest Center operated the pool since 2003, but contract renewal talks ended in June when the city found several problems with the pool, including a torn filtration system and outdated drain system. The city then temporarily closed the pool June 18 to make the repairs and seek a new operator.

For more information about the Redmond Pool project, call (425) 556-2375 or go to www.redmond.gov.