Council approves sauna replacement

NEW LONDON – The New London Common Council has approved the replacement of the sauna in the women’s area of the New London Aquatics and Fitness Center at an estimated cost of $6,300.
The approval came at the council’s March 17 meeting. Ald. Bernie Ritchie Jr. voted no. Ald. Charlene Magolski was absent from the meeting.
At the March 11 New London Capital Projects and Equipment Committee meeting, Ginger Sowle, director of Parks & Recreation for the city of New London, told the committee that the control sensor for the sauna in the women’s area of the New London Aquatics and Fitness Center is not working properly, and is causing the temperature to go dangerously high. While attempting to have it repaired the city found out the unit is obsolete.
“Replacing the actual unit is our best option just because the unit that we would be fixing, it wouldn’t be worth it,” Sowle said. “And we can’t find the parts for it anyway.”
The sauna is popular at the fitness center and is becoming more popular, Sowle said.

“It’s kind of a trendy thing right now for women to sit in saunas for detox, so we’re getting a lot of flack for it being shutdown right now,” Sowle said.
The sauna in the men’s area of the fitness center is the same type of sauna, but it is currently working properly.
The committee did discuss the possibility of replacing both saunas at this time, but ultimately decided to recommend replacing only the broken sauna.
“If it’s not broken, why fix it?” Ald. Tim Roberts asked.