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Months of waiting, plus weeks of prep, and now, finally, the season is upon us.

The long-awaited water play time is well deserved. I must admit, even with the labor and behind-the-scenes prep that it takes to get the Municipal Pool opened and running, there is a certain element of excitement to seeing the facility come back to life after 21 months of hibernation. It hasn’t been without its hidden surprises, and maintenance staff have been on site dealing with the inside and outside workings nearly every weekday since shortly after the frost was out of the ground.

Some of the first non-surprises have been paint and surface repairs. Concrete patches and paint touch-ups were expected. Some valve and mechanical surprises were also anticipated, given the many months of sitting idle. However, most of the problems came to the surface within the first couple of weeks. Others did not and could not appear until they had been in operation with water in the pools. The last two (hopefully) just came into (non)action in the past two days, as follows:

• The electric motor, which drives the water pump for the water slides, needed a new bearing (both have now been replaced);

• The water pump itself, which made some noise when they started it up earlier this week, will need some new impeller parts that will require ordering them from a supplier. It will run, perhaps not at full capacity, and hopefully it lasts until the new part(s) arrive. We’ll be at the mercy of the supplier for these parts and as per below; and   

• The three circuit boards, which control the heaters for the diving well and Tot Lot, after the heaters increased the water temperature in these two pools into the mid-60’s degrees Fahrenheit, went blank. This means that the heaters stopped working for these two pools.

So, what now?

We’re still set to open the facility on Monday,  June 7. However, the waterslides (likely) will not be running at full water flow until the new parts arrive. Also, the water temperature within the Tot Lot likely will reach the into the 80s via solar heat. Conversely, that of the diving well will warm very little via the sun and ambient air temp due to its depth. So, the diving well will remain quite cool until the related pool heater is operational again.