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Aquatic center readying for season
Outdoor pool could open this weekend
Pool WEB 1
Aquatics coordinator Ronnie Coleman puts chairs around the Cumming Aquatic Centers outdoor leisure pool in preparation of the summer season. - photo by Crystal Ledford

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For more information about the Cumming Aquatic Center, including pricing, hours and offerings, visit www.cummingaquaticcenter.com.

Unseasonably rainy and cool weather has slightly delayed the opening of the Cumming Aquatic Center’s outdoor leisure pool.

But hopefully warmer temperatures and clear skies will be in the forecast this weekend, said Carla Wilson, manager of the center at 201 Aquatic Center off Pilgrim Mill Road.

“We open weekends in May, but the weather hasn’t exactly been cooperating,” Wilson said. “The first weekend, it just rained all weekend, and then it was reasonable this past Saturday but a little too cool.

“So we’re just watching the weather and seeing what happens this weekend.”

If the weather does permit, the outdoor pool — which features a kiddie splash play zone, lazy river and water slide — will be open from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Beginning on Memorial Day weekend, the outdoor pool is slated to be open daily with two sessions. The first session is set for 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and the second from 2:30 to 6 p.m. The exception is Sundays, which will offer just one session, from 1 to 6 p.m.

In the meantime, staff members are preparing for the busy summer season, which will run through Aug. 7.

“We’re completing our hiring. We’re hiring a couple more lifeguards for the summer,” Wilson said. “The big thing is preparing for the ticket booth and concession stand to be operational.”

The new booth, located at the entrance to the outdoor pool, has been coming together for a while, experiencing some delays due to the wet spring.

“It’s still under construction, but we have all our concession stand staff in place and we’ve got our equipment,” Wilson said. “We think we’ll be able to put that inside on Monday, if not before.”

Wilson said the booth should be completely operational by sometime after Memorial Day.

She said the ticket booth aspect was greatly needed to due to the high volume of people using the leisure pool during summer months.

“Our programming continues to increase and there’s a lot of traffic at the front desk when the outdoor leisure pool opens,” she said. “We’ll still be doing memberships and program registration up here at the front desk and the ticket booth will be primarily point of sale for people paying daily admission or scanning their passes [to the leisure pool].

“It’s going to cut down traffic in the front lobby area tremendously so our regular members and people in water exercise classes and swim lessons, those types of things, I know they’ll appreciate that.”

As for the concession stand, which will be housed inside the same structure as the ticket booth, Wilson said it will offer treats such as hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, Italian ice and ice cream.

“We’ve partnered with a lot of local businesses,” she added. “The pizza we’re going to sell is Jersey Boyz Pizza and then Lenny’s Sub Shop will provide subs, chips and cookies.

“Then we’ll have some healthier options too, like fruit, nuts and veggie chips.”

After the concession stand becomes fully operational, Wilson said, pool-goers won’t be allowed to bring in any outside food or drinks.

“We’ll have exceptions for birthday parties and any groups that have rented cabanas. They’ll be able to bring in food, but those will be the only exceptions.”

As for offerings such as water exercise classes and swim lessons, Wilson said, those will remain the same for the summer season but with some expansions.

“We’ll just be offering more of what we already offer,” she said. “Right now, we offer swim lessons in the evenings and limited times during the day. We’ll be offering classes during the day and six days a week this summer, so there will be a lot more options.”

Wilson and her staff are ready for summer to arrive.

“We’ve had lots of inquiries and our members have told us how excited they are for the [outdoor pool] to open, so I know we’ll be busy.”