(Seguin) — It’s been three years since swimmers have been able to dip their toes into the Seguin Wave Pool. Maintenance issues and a global pandemic have kept the wave pool offline, but that’s all about to change.
Seguin Parks and Recreation Director Jack Jones says the wave pool in Max Starcke Park is set to reopen during the Memorial Day weekend.
“We are going to up on Saturday, May 30th. We will be open Saturday, Sunday, Monday for Memorial Day weekend from noon to 6 p.m. and we will close for the week because school is still in session, and we will open back up on Saturday June the 4th. It will be open Tuesday through Sunday noon to 6 the rest of the summer up and until when school starts the first of August,” said Jones.
Jones says they were initially worried if they would be able to find enough lifeguards to staff the pool’s reopening. That’s because several nearby communities have reported their difficulties finding lifeguards for their pools. Jones says city staff did a great job of getting the word out, and he’s pleased with their lifeguard count this year.
“We are not full of lifeguards, but we are close enough where we will be just fine. In fact, we have more lifeguards than we have ever had but the more you can get, the better but we are not in a situation as San Antonio and New Braunfels and Austin and we really want to thank a lot of people for making this happen – our HR staff is wonderful. Courtney Toliver, she’s hearded all the cats and started getting the high school kids to get going in the process and we’ve got a few loose ends. I want to t hank her. Also, Lindsay Hajek, is our recreation superintendent, she’s done a lot of stuff and she did training this last weekend for the lifeguards,” said Jones.
Jones also thanked Events Complex Superintendent Bubba Eckhardt for his help in getting the wave pool ready to reopen. Jones says it’s really been a team approach to get this amenity back up and running.
“The Wave Pool is working. We fired it up today. The waves work – 15 and 5. We got that reprogrammed right. It’s painted. Greg Odom, our facilities director has worked hard to get everything ready to go with new paint. The restrooms are almost brand new, remodeling things are painted. Things are looking good. Everything is working but you never know, the gremlins are going to show up at some point, so we are ready for the gremlins. There could be some issues being down for three years and all that but as for today, we are ready to go,” said Jones.
The 15 and five mentioned by Jones is reference to a change in how the wave pool will be operated. There will be 15 minutes of waves and then a five-minute resting period before the waves start again. Some members of the council complained that the old set up had a longer rest period, which made the wave pool less fun.
Jones says they have tried to keep the cost of admission low, so that families can enjoy the wave pool all summer long. In addition to the wave pool’s regular hours, Jones says that the facility is also available to rent for private parties and other functions.
The city used some federal pandemic relief funds to help make some of these much-needed improvements to park.
