After a summer bummer, pool deal creates optimism

Greg Kozol, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
·2 min read

Aug. 25—This summer brought its share of frustration for some who wanted to take a dip in one of the city's outdoor public pools.

But now there's a sense of optimism as the city of St. Joseph plunges into the business of running an indoor pool.

"A lot more needs to be done," said Amanda Cook, the assistant swim coach at Central High School. "But it's a step in the right direction."

For several years, an arrangement with Missouri Western State University allowed the city to use the Thomas Eagleton Indoor Pool on campus. Under a new agreement with the college, the city is now the primary operator of the pool. Missouri Western still owns the facility, but the city handles staffing, scheduling and user agreements with high school teams and swim clubs.

"The challenge is the swim teams want to use the pool during prime time, between 3 and 8 p.m.," said Chuck Kempf, the city's director of parks, recreation and civic facilities. "We're trying to keep it open, at least part of the pool for some sort of public use, where the public can come in and swim year round."

The city hoped to open the pool to public use this Monday but is still working through some issues with staffing and scheduling with swim teams.

In the long term, better access to an indoor pool will help not just with developing competitive swimmers or training lifeguards. Cook is worried that fewer children are learning how to swim since the YMCA closed its indoor pool.

"I believe we'll be able to start building programs again and teaching swimming lessons," she said. "Accidents happen in pools all the time, but if you know pool safety and you can learn pool safety, then you're more apt to not having those accidents."

The city is looking to spend an additional $353,000 in the current fiscal year on staffing, equipment and chemicals at the indoor pool. It expects revenue of about $104,000 on programming fees and facility rentals.

Greg Kozol can be reached at greg.kozol@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowKozol.