City pool to close for the season Sunday

With the early start of school this year and lifeguard staff heading back to classes in droves, the Greencastle Aquatic Center will close a successful season on Sunday.

A year in which the pool lost only four days to inclement weather and was open on 75 days proved to be in sharp contrast to cool, rainy seasons the past two years at the Robe-Ann Park facility.

Assistant Park Director Phil Cornelius, who ran the aquatic center for the first time this season, reported a total attendance of 17,180 pool visitors this summer. Another 4,368 took advantage of the free splash park facility, which will remain open as long as the weather holds up.

The increased pool attendance resulted in total income to date of $81,292, comprised of $60,653 in pool admissions and $20,639 in concession stand purchases.

That prompted Park Board ex-officio member Wayne Lewis to ask how the income compared to expenses at the pool this year.

Cornelius and Park Director Rod Weinschenk said those figures weren't readily available at present and promised to get them from the clerk's office prior to the next Park Board meeting.

However, Cornelius assured that he has been diligent about keeping labor costs down as much as possible for pool operations.

Regardless, everyone agreed that after the past two years, 2015 "has been great," as Weinschenk said.

But it will come to an end for the season -- which opened May 23 -- on Sunday evening, making way for repainting the bottom of the pool.

Pool-draining operations will commence Monday, Weinschenk said, in order for American Clean and Seal to move in Wednesday to sandblast and clean the pool before it is repainted, an operation that hasn't happened in a number of years.

"I am looking forward to this project," Weinschenk told the Park Board at its meeting Thursday night, "as the bottom of the pool has looked dingy for the last three years.

"It's another exciting improvement which will help class up and give a facelift to our aquatics center."