Mary Wayte, whose name is emblazoned throughout the Mercer Island pool facility on Southeast 40th Street, said she has fond memories of the building and the community.

While meeting with Mercer Island superstar swimmer Piper Enge on June 2, 2024, at the pool that bears Wayte’s name, the two-time Olympic gold medal winner reminisced about her career and time spent at the pool that helped pave her way to success.

Mary Wayte Pool, which is more than 50 years old, will soon undergo an immense progressive design-build project that will be partly funded by a $2 million King County grant and $2 million from the Mercer Island School District’s cap/tech levy.

Brandy Fox of the school district’s capital projects team said that Bellevue’s GLY Construction and Seattle’s Miller Hayashi Architects will handle the project, which is intended to extend the life of the pool by 10 years. The project is anticipated to begin in earnest with a pool drainage in late July or early August and reach completion by early September.

On Feb. 18, workers drained the pool and experts conducted a major inspection to determine the breadth of repairs they’ll place on the docket. The district intends to go through the permitting process with the city of Mercer Island in April.

Fox rolled out some of the project details, noting that the pool bowl work should be completed by the aforementioned time while other segments may reach the finish line later in the year.

“The major piece of work is to do some repairs and recoat the fiberglass liner in the pool. And then we’re going to make some ADA improvements to both locker rooms,” said Fox, adding that they’ll also create ADA access up to the spectator mezzanine and construct a small viewing platform.

They also need to replace a pipe support in the mechanical room, and if the school district’s dollars hold out, Fox said they would like to coat the concrete pool deck. Before refilling the pool, workers will paint new lines in the bowl.

In the pool drainage and refilling realm, Fox said that it takes about 24 hours to drain the pool and about 36 hours to refill it. After refilling occurs, the water needs to be treated and heated for a couple days before swimmers can splash back inside the pool. In February, two days were needed for inspection and then the pool was refilled and back up and running within the week.

Fox explained that the water enters the sewer system when drainage occurs; for refilling, the district rents a hydrant meter from the city so they can fill the pool from a fire hydrant.

The time is now to dive into this project because the district received King County funds, Fox said. About $3 million will be headed toward the construction cost while about $1 million will pay for legal fees, design fees, permitting fees and more.

“We had always earmarked this money out of the cap/tech fund, but really wanted to be able to leverage grant dollars,” she said. “It’s a pool, right? It decays as fast as you can fix it. So there is always an opportunity to do something at the pool.”

Mercer Island School District’s last big pool project took place about five years ago and featured HVAC jobs, including the placement of new boilers and air handlers and duct work. Shortly before that project commenced, the district re-roofed the building.

As for where the swimmers will go when the project is in full swing, Olympic Cascade Aquatics (OCA) owner Alice Godfred — whose business is contracted to manage the pool for the district — said that she’s in talks with a club to rent space to offer lessons when the pool is closed.

“It’s still in the preliminary stages. It allows me to keep my staff with hours and being able to work. I’ve got staff that I don’t want to lose because we’re closed for six weeks,” said Godfred, who also runs a competitive OCA USA Swimming team.

Godfred said there are Seattle public facilities and the Bellevue Aquatic Center that are available for Mary Wayte Pool swimmers to get in their laps.

“August also around here is kind of a travel month for people. Who knows, maybe the lake will be warm enough. They can jump in there,” said Godfred, who will send out information and options to the pool’s patrons as the project inches closer to starting time.

The OCA owner said the pool improvements will help in the long run.

“I’m very supportive of it,” Godfred said. “Nobody wants to be closed for a month (to six weeks), but it needs to be done in order for us to stay open in a more positive way.”