Officials are in the final stages of readying area pools for the fast-approaching summer season.
Hays Aquatic Park plans to open May 24 for Memorial Day weekend, said Roger Bixenman, Hays Recreation Commission superintendent. Wilson Pool will open a week later on May 31.
Grant Lacy, aquatics park director, said HRC and city of Hays Parks Department crews have everything ready to go for the upcoming season, a process that begins in earnest in March of each year. The lap pool has been painted and wood decking was restained, but Lacy said the HAP required no significant repairs in the off-season.
In light of the city’s current water warning, Lacy said the pool staff will “conserve as best we can.”
He said irrigation of the grass and landscaping at the facility was kept to a minimum last season, a practice that will be continued this year.
Bixenman said the city’s pools are a significant quality-of-life benefit Hays offers.
“We feel like it’s important for the community,” he said. “We’re planning on operating just as we have in the past unless we’re ever told different by the city.”
Lacy said approximately 85 people are employed during the season at the pools, as lifeguards, admissions clerks, concession stand workers and maintenance workers.
“And anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 people a year come through our gates,” he said. “It’s an opportunity we are glad we are a part of. We can’t wait to get this next season underway … Just hope for some rain.”
Hays Aquatic Park hours will be noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Wilson is open 1 to 5 p.m. daily.
Season pool passes go on sale Monday, at a discounted early bird price of $35 per person. After three weeks, that price will increase to $40 per person. Children 2 and younger are admitted free.
The city’s water warning, declared earlier this year, limits outside watering, but does not call for changes at pools — either public or private. That could change should the city move to the final step in its drought response plan — a water emergency.
In a water emergency, municipal pools would not be filled, and regulations also would be put into place barring private pools from being filled, as well.