The City of Marysville Municipal Pool has seen an increase in attendance since last year and is hoping to carry this success through the end of the season.
The pool has had an average of 325 daily attendees, up from 270 last year. Visitors still have until Sept. 3 if they want to visit the pool this year.
“We’re open from Memorial Day until Labor Day, we close during the week when school starts and open on the weekends through Labor Day,” Recreation Aquatics and Event Manager Amanda Morris said.
With a few weeks left in the season, it’s hard to gauge the success of this year, but Morris is hopeful.
“I don’t have all the numbers yet, but so far, what I am seeing is on budget,” she said. “It looks like the season has been successful.”
This summer has seen new activities brought to the pool to encourage visitors of all ages.
The library paired up with the pool to offer Summer Storytimes every Friday.
“We did a partnership with the library and that was really popular,” Morris said. “We had guest speakers come out — like the fire chief — they were really well received.”
On top of the storytimes, the pool hosted a Movie in the Park for the first time since 2014.
“The weather was perfect and we had good attendance,” Morris said. “We hope to have those again next year.”
To close out the season, the pool will host their annual Dog Swim on Sept. 4. The event will last from 5 to 7 p.m. 138 dogs were in attendance at last year’s event.
“It’s $5 per dog and half of the proceeds go to the Union County Humane Society,” Morris said.
Once the pool has officially closed down, they are looking at updating the restroom.
“It is a dated facility, so we’re giving it a facelift,” Morris said. “A fresh coat of paint and some love, then we’ll look at maybe some new counters.”
Before the season comes to an end, Morris points out the staff as the reason for their success.
“Our staff has been really wonderful,” Morris said.
On the staff are a large number of high school students working as lifeguards. The position requires a lot of preparation before even accepting the job.
“You can become Red Cross CPR, First Aid, and Lifeguard certified at 15,” Morris said. “You don’t need to be certified at the interview, but you’ll need to be when the job starts.”
For those interested in the job, there are opportunities in town, along with offerings in the surrounding area, like Dublin.
“In our community, we’re fortunate you can get certified at the Y,” Morris said. “The certification is good for two years.”
To help with the process for recertification and make it easier for the employees, Morris said the pool is hoping to have someone on staff that can recertify others in the future.
After the lifeguards have been certified and accept the position, the pool faces a problem with keeping them around. In previous years, the average lifeguard working at the pool was college-aged, according to Morris. However, with the demand for internships during college, students don’t have the opportunity to return to their hometown summer jobs. This has caused a shift in the average age of the lifeguards.
“Because of college internships, the average age is now 15, 16, or 17 (years old),” Morris said. “We see them for two to three years and some of them still try to come back during college.”
The group of lifeguards is made up of students from all over the district, which better represents the area the pool serves.
“We’re fortunate to have kids from the surrounding districts,” Morris said. “We like to serve as many as we can. Our facility gets rented almost daily by Dublin and Maysville swim teams.”
Morris said the facility is much larger than other pools, increasing demand from people outside of town. She hopes those in the community will continue to use the facility without taking it for advantage that they have such a great place so close to home.
“It’s a hidden gem in our community,” Morris said.