The final touches are being made, the gushing fire hose is pouring in fresh water and all appears ready to go for the new aquatic center at the Wayne Community Activity Center.
Wayne city activity director Bryce Meyer told The Wayne Herald on Wednesday morning that he is cautiously optimistic the new pool could see its first swimmers within the next week or so.
"The state health inspector is scheduled to be here Friday, so we're hoping to get everything wrapped up this week before they get here," he said. "If we get the green light (on Friday), we'll need to move things down from the old pool so we could open up the first part of next week.."
Original plans to open the pool for the start of the 2016 summer season were off by a few months as weather and construction delays pushed things back. Now, all that appeared left to do was to tie up a few loose ends and fill up the nearly 300,000-gallon pool to get it ready for swimmers to enjoy for a couple of weeks before the end of the summer season.
"The construction guys said they were hoping to be done with their stuff by the end of this week, and the pool inspector is scheduled to be here Friday, but if they can't make it then we'll probably see them early the following week," Meyer said. "With the fair going on this weekend, it would be tough for us to get help to move things down right away, so the earliest we'll open is the first part of next week."
Once the new pool is open, the old pool will remain for the time being. Meyer said he wanted to make sure everything checks out with the new pool before closing up shop in the 60-year old city pool for good.
"We're going to have the dog dive at the end of the year up there, so we won't fully drain it yet," he said. "If something were to happen here (at the new pool) then we'd have to keep that open."
Once the new pool is open to the public, current memberships will transfer to the new facility. Swimmers will walk down the hallway at the Wayne Community Activity Center to their respective locker rooms and check in and enter the pool through there.
