EVERETT — Things are looking dry at McCollum Park’s outdoor pool.
A major construction project to replace the pool’s gutters and liner promises a later-than-normal start for swimming there this year. The seasonal facility typically opens during the first or second week of June and stays open through Labor Day.
“Most likely, we won’t have it open until July 4,” said Russ Bosanko, an operations manager for Snohomish County parks.
If that schedule holds, the south Everett pool would welcome its first swimmers on the Independence Day holiday. Lessons would start July 6, the following Monday.
The construction work will prevent the pool from hosting traditional fifth-grade graduation parties for local elementary schools, said Tony Trofimczuk, recreation supervisor for the parks department. Early-season swim lessons were cancelled as well.
Construction crews started dismantling the 45-year-old pool on May 11 to rebuild the gutters and replace the PVC liner that covers the aluminum shell. They’re also redoing the pavement and plumbing.
The county in March awarded a $295,000 bid for the work to Aquatic Renovation Systems of Indianapolis.
“We’ve looked over the past several years about whether we redevelop the pool or not,” county parks director Tom Teigen said.
The ongoing work “should buy us another 10 to 15 years of operations as it stands. Then, at that point, the county will have to think about whether it really wants an outdoor pool.”
Parks staff discovered last year that the pool was leaking. Tests showed no evidence contamination in nearby North Creek, based on pH balance and dye-testing, Trofimczuk said.
Tests also turned up no trace of substances used in pool water such as chlorine or calcium near the creek.
The outdoor public pools at the county’s McCollum Park and Edmonds’ Yost Park are among the few left in the area.
The McCollum pool, at 600 128th St. SE, first opened in 1970. Until the mid-1960s, the surrounding park was home to a county dump. Construction began in 1968, following the dump’s closure.
Generations have learned to swim at McCollum.
The county allows up to 220 bathers at a time.
About 1,800 people register for swim lessons there every year, Trofimczuk said. This year’s shorter season may lower registrations to about 1,500.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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