Washington Y will hold pool opening ceremony next month

WASHINGTON — The Washington YMCA will hold a ribbon-cutting to mark the grand opening of its new indoor aquatic facility Dec. 10, although nobody gets to dive in until after the fact.

YMCA of Washington County CEO Amy Schulte said swimmers would have to wait until at least the following weekend to get in the water for safety reasons, but said the grand opening night would include a scavenger hunt, guided tours, and refreshments.

“It would be pretty difficult to have a lot of people walking around the pool deck and having lifeguards monitoring the water with all of those distractions,” she said, adding that the move would also let staff participate in the planned activities. “So for safety reasons, it’s going to be more of an event to show off the facility and what all it’s going to do once it’s open.”

An exact opening date for the pool hasn’t been scheduled. Schulte said the facility still needed to pass a final safety inspection from state regulators, which is planned for next week.

If that inspection goes well, the Y will once more welcome lap swimmers, water aerobics enthusiasts, families seeking indoor fun, and the Washington Water Sharks, a local competitive swim team which hasn’t had anywhere to practice since the almost century-old, non-regulation-size previous pool shut down in March.

If it doesn’t, Schulte said staff would work to fix any issues as soon as possible, but couldn’t guarantee any specific timeline.

“We feel like we’ve crossed all of our T’s and dotted all of our I’s, and our hope is that we will be open,” she said. “But if not, there might be a couple more days where we have to fix a couple things, and then open. But we’re not expecting any major delay, we’ve run pools for a long time, we know what the inspection process looks like.”

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Excitement is palpable at the Y over the long-awaited aquatic facility. Since planning for the pool started in 2013 and a fundraising campaign launched in 2018, the organization faced a roughly $2.5 million price increase on the project before breaking ground last summer, and has dealt with a handful of construction delays in the months since.

But with water in the pool and construction completed, Schulte said the finish line was tantalizingly close.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” she said. “It’s definitely feeling real, and we’re so excited to show it off and have everybody have the experience of walking out on the pool deck for the first time, just seeing the difference of what we had to work with previously and what we have for the future of the Y.”

The organization is on the verge of finishing the pool’s massive fundraising campaign as well. Schulte said it needed just $25,000 more of donations before it could pay for the $8.5 million project debt-free.

“I think I’m just as excited about that piece of it,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming and it’s just humbling to know we have that much support in the community.”

The grand opening event Dec. 10 is scheduled from 4-8 p.m., with a chamber of commerce ribbon-cutting planned at 5 p.m.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com