Falling Paint Chips Shut Germantown Indoor Swim Center Down for the Summer

Updated (3:38 p.m.) --- The will be closed for the summer due to a $1.6 million project to fix a bad ceiling paint job.

The swim center would be closed from Sunday, May 8, through mid-September, county officials said. 

Department of Recreation Director Gabriel I. Albornoz said paint chips had been falling off the galvanized steel ceiling and into the pool because the wrong type of paint was used on the original paint job.

Benaka Inc. won the bid to repaint the ceiling. The construction firm is based in New Jersey and is licensed to do business in Maryland, where it has a business office in Ellicott City, Md., according to Maryland tax and business records.

Larry Moel, recreation specialist at the Swim Center, said the peeling was the worst in the recreational pool area, where paint scabs clung loosely over the pool.

Moel said lifeguards and staff took turns cleaning up fallen chips.

Meanwhile, the county and the contractor that did the original paint job blamed each other for the bad paint job. The dispute between the county and Delta Painting – a subcontractor for Forrester Construction Company, which completed the $16.6 million contract to build the swim center — was resolved in a $412,500 settlement, according to records from the Department of General Services.

But that amount alone won’t cover the $1,559,700 million the county says it will now cost to repaint the ceiling.  

In April, Montgomery County Council approved a $710,000 bond request to help fund the project.

James A. Stiles, assistant chief contract administrator in the county's Department of General Services, said the project was already funded for $1,142,000 in the 2010-15 capital budget. 

Stiles said that when you include the additional $710,000, the county would have set aside a total of $1,852,000 to repaint the ceiling. Of that amount, Stiles said $1,559,700 would go toward Benaka’s contract and the remainder would cover architectural consultant costs, county staff costs and contingencies.

 Stiles said that the county would end up paying $1,439,500, when accounting for the original contractor's payment.