City closes pool; needs overhaul

The city of Olney will delay opening the municipal pool indefinitely because of serious structural problems that the Public Works Director K.C. Blassingame discovered while preparing the 1950s-era pool for its June 2 opening day, said Interim City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon.

“We have a soft spot at the bottom of the pool … where it looks like water trapped under the pool. It looks like the pool is tilted upward... It’s a 70-year-old pool and we have been doing a lot of band-aiding on it to keep it afloat,” she said.

The city made a huge effort to staff and open the pool – even lowering the minimum age of lifeguards to 15 to come up to full staffing, Pagsuberon said.

“I know that people are going to be upset but everyone’s safety is more important,” she said.

The City Council will consider at its June 13 meeting how to repair or replace the pool with the help of Keep Olney Beautiful and by searching for grant funding, Pagsuberon said. The group had designated a pool upgrade or splash pad as the third phase of its ongoing revitalization of Griffin Park.

“We haven’t been able to find an appropriate grant for our pool so we are looking into that. At this point it is up to Keep Olney Beautiful to do it,” she said. “They are doing fundraising toward Phase 3, which is the swimming pool.”