This season will likely be the last for Carbondale’s current public pool. Upcoming renovations and a redesign to reinvigorate the aquatic facility mean that residents may have a season when they will have to resort to ponds or creeks to cool down instead. Lifeguard Al Atkinson notes that the pool does need the help.
"We've got the plans of approval to get a new pool. It's gonna be bigger, much more modern. This has served its purpose, it has been for decades. We've had problems with the pumps failing or the heater going out, and just things that are kind of breaking that would happen in a pool that's over four decades old.
And so we're trying to get that kind of strapped together and make it through this season. And then of course, that'll all be, hopefully, rectified with the new pool, but it's kind of fallen apart. It needs to be upgraded. So we've got a brand new pool that's gonna be coming in with better lap swimming, better open swimming for families to come in and maybe a little splash area for folks.
So even be more fun than it is right now. When Covid hit, we had to change our schedule, like all lots of businesses had to do, but we're pretty much back to a hundred percent operation with, lap swimming two to three times during the day. Sometimes it's two lanes, if it's mixed use between, um, lap swimming and open swim.
And then sometimes we have all six lanes up. The lanes are open and it's first come, first serve. So I recommend if people want to come in, just get here maybe a few minutes before things, the lap swim time opens so we can hopefully get yourself a lane if we have, if we fill everything up with them, we just ask people to swim two in a lane, which is not a big deal.
But yeah, it's first come, first serve. Just come on in and do some lap swimming and we've got lots of hours during the day to do it, or morning, afternoon, and evening. So just check it out and see which one fits in someone's schedule. And then we have open swim throughout the day. And then, Swim lessons.
And currently, right this moment we actually have, a bunch of kids in the pool and they're, they're learning water safety and swimming and things that are pretty important. Check us out what we've got right now. And then we also have a poster that shows, here at the rec center that shows the projected new pool that we're gonna be building.
So you can look at what we've got, look at what we've got to look forward to."
The last day of swimming for this season is currently slated as Sunday, September 24th, which will be free for residents. The Town of Carbondale hopes to have the new pool up and running by the summer of 2025. More information on the pool’s renovations and schedule is available at: carbondale rec dot com
