ADRIAN — An unexpected underground water leak at the site of Bohn Pool has city leaders talking about the future of the facility.

At the Sept. 2 city commission meeting, parks and recreation director Jeremiah Davies told commissioners there’s a good chance that the leak can be located and fixed by city staff. If that ends up being the case, the cost will be minimal. But if the problem turns out to be bigger, the pool won’t be able to open next year.

Even in the best-case scenario, however, Davies noted that the 53-year-old pool is coming up on needing some major repairs and the city will soon face some tough decisions.

The current problem came to Davies’ attention on Aug. 8, when he was notified by the city utilities department Bohn Pool was showing unusually high water usage, suggesting a leak somewhere at the facility. City staff worked across multiple departments to figure out where the problem was, but were unable to find it — but then on the evening of Aug. 15, the pool manager reported to Davies that the leak had surfaced through concrete joints. Davies said the leak had saturated the ground to the point where water finally forced its way through the concrete.

“We have to find the leak. We cannot open the pool next year as it is,” he said.

However, preliminary testing indicated that the leak is probably in a place where city staff would be able to dig to access it, and where it could be repaired by the utilities department. Some exploratory digging will be required, but if the leak is where it appears likely to be, it can be fixed at a cost of between $10,000 and $15,000.

If the leak isn’t found, that will mean it’s in the main water line, and that will be a much bigger problem.

Over the past few years, the city has been completing a series of upgrades at the Bohn Pool site.

“The focus was making sure the pool was open, and we’ve been able to do that,” Davies said.

Davies said the pool, which was built in 1972, has lasted as long as it has due to careful management by city staff.

But he also told commissioners that in order for it to remain operational in the long run, much more expensive work will be needed. A major overhaul would cost between $2.5 million and $3 million, and would have to be done all at once, not in stages. In addition, the city would need to figure out how to fund a project of that size.

Commissioners asked Davies how much usage the pool gets, and also what kind of trends other communities are seeing in public pool use.

“Is there better use of our budget to provide amenities in the recreation department than Bohn Pool?” commissioner Bob Behnke asked.

Davies said that Bohn Pool’s attendance numbers have been declining, and that in general, municipal pools are “one of those amenities, if you will, that’s starting to die off.”

He said the pool gets its heaviest use in June and through about the third week of July, then attendance tends to drop off toward the end of the summer. The pool operates at a deficit of about $70,000 per year.

“We’re doing everything we can to generate revenue,” he said. Pool programs include morning swim times, lessons, and public hours, in addition to renting the pool out to the Waverunners swim team.

Davies also noted that the new splash pad at Parish Park is “overwhelmingly used.”

Mayor Angela Sword Heath said that losing Bohn Pool would be “a bitter pill to swallow for the community.”

Commissioner Matt Schwartz noted that the Waverunners program is very popular.

Some commissioners also said that having a deficit — meaning that the program can’t cover all of its cost through fees and needs to be supplemented with tax money — is not necessarily a reason to stop running a program. Commissioner Kelly Castleberry said public amenities do sometimes operate at a deficit, but they are an investment in enhancing quality of life in the city.

Commissioner Mary Roberts agreed that the main purpose of public amenities is to serve the community.

“Amenities for the city aren’t out there to make money,” she said. “It’s OK that it’s not making money.”

Roberts also said that it will be important to engage the public in conversations about the future of the pool.

“They will let us know if they want to pay for it or not,” she said.

Because of the uncertainty, commissioner Gordon Gauss asked Davies if it would make sense to put a hold on the infrastructure work that’s currently being done on the building adjacent to the pool. Davies said it would not — partly because contracts have already been signed, but also because whether the pool continues to operate or not, the building is still the city’s responsibility and will need that infrastructure work no matter what its future use ends up being.