PORT ANGELES — William Shore Memorial Pool — the city’s only public pool — will get a face-lift this summer in time for the facility’s 50th anniversary party and open house this fall.
The pool will be closed beginning June 29 for $323,278 worth of maintenance work before opening up again Aug. 5.
A public pool party will be held in September to celebrate 50 years of existence, pool Executive Director Steven Burke said Friday.
The party was originally scheduled for Aug. 4.
“We just wanted to make sure we had everything finished and done before we had the open house,” Burke said Friday.
“It’s 50 years old, and you never know what you’re going to get into.”
The celebration at the pool, named for a popular Port Angeles High School teacher and coach who died in 1958, will begin with a light lunch at no cost to attendees.
The afternoon will feature appearances by members of the Shore family as well as lifeguards who were on duty the day the pool opened.
Diving and synchronized swimming demonstrations also are planned, Burke said.
During the shutdown, the original piping for the pool and the original sanitary and domestic water piping will be replaced, new overhead and in-pool lighting will be installed, and the old coat of paint inside the pool will be removed and a new coat applied.
The pipe installation will take about 30 days, Burke said.
Most of the plumbing is between 60 percent to 70 percent blocked, causing leaks, he said.
“It was never intended to last as long as it has,” he said.
The interior walls of the pool area and locker rooms also will be given new coats of paint.
The pool gets between 45,000 and 50,000 visits annually, including 175 youngsters a month who receive swimming lessons, he said.
It’s unfortunate the new paint for the pool will cure easiest in July, the area’s driest month, he said.
“Otherwise, we’d do it in February,” Burke added.
The Port Angeles High School girls’ swim season begins in mid-August, he added, so they will need the pool for practice.
“They don’t really have other alternatives, short of the ocean,” Burke added.
The William Shore Memorial Pool District took ownership of the pool from the city of Port Angeles in 2009 after voters approved the new district to run the pool, which city officials were considering closing because of its age.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
