The Marysville pool is a staple of the local community, and city officials have been thinking about both its short-term and long-term future.
This year’s statistics paint a picture with both ups and downs.
“The pool’s pushing that 25 to 30-year mark when it was redone,” said Amanda Morris, the city’s events and recreation coordinator.
The city has seen nearly an 18 percent increase in pool memberships over 2016, according to a pool financial comparison provided by the city. Morris said the city attracted a few more individual memberships.
However, there was a 15 percent decrease in average daily attendance. The pool’s revenue is also down from $249,781 last year to $204,661 this year, though much of that is due to less funding being transferred in from other areas of the budget.
With more people going to the pool, the city is looking a bit further ahead as well. Morris said the city is aware of the aging nature of the facility, and the need to update or replace it.
She said she hasn’t seen a desire to move the pool to a different location. That said, a significant expansion to the current facility could come in the next few years, which could come in the form of a new play area. There’s interest in building a new area for children during rest periods during the day.
The city’s also looking at its neighbors for inspiration.
“We visit some of the other municipalities and community pools, and you see a lot more of those splash feature functions,” she said. “I think now that the master plan is done, I think the hope is to use that as a tool, but also continue those discussions.
Morris said last year’s addition of the slide helped improve the pool overall, so they added smaller changes this year. The water feature at the baby pool was made into a frog, and some additional matting was added to help children get in and out.
In the summer of 2016, the city rented a shade tent for Day in the Park and decided to keep it up this year.
“A lot of people enjoyed it over the concession stand area,” she said. “We just maintained it through the rest of the summer.”
She said the success of the water slide also spurred some emphasis on those smaller improvements.
“I think we may eventually run out of space adding stuff,” she said.
Going forward, the city has asked for more funding to add some permanent shading structures. She cited mesh awnings seen at other pools and said the city’s goal is to provide those features in the open lawn area.
Discussions around possible triathalon events have popped up. The pool’s lack of heating presents some limitations, but Morris said athletes who have used the pool haven’t shied away from using it in colder months.
“We would love to entertain that and see if that’s something we could do,” she said.
All in all, Morris said this was a “fun year.” There were some minor staffing problems early in the season, but the city worked to make employees comfortable. This year also saw small storms mess with shifts.
“But with all that aside, we still saw an increase in sales,” she said. “It didn’t hurt us.”