Swim center to open May 27
Highs forecast in the upper 80s this week, 90 on Tuesday
With temperatures spiking into the 80s — and hotter weather expected this week — kids at the Northside Swim Center park Sunday cast longing gazes at the gated and locked pool.
“I can’t wait,” said Shailyn Ketterer, 11, who was running, climbing and sliding on the playground installation with a group of friends.
The public pool at 501 Kingston Ave. opens for the season on May 27, the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
Teens Roy Albury and Anthony Frazier were lazily playing a card game at a picnic table shaded by the pavilion, occasionally stopping to check their smartphones and talk.
“It should be open by now,” said Roy.
“It should have been open last week,” replied Anthony, who said he uses the pool several times a week throughout the summer.
Passes are on sale now at the Rome-Floyd Parks and Recreation headquarters at 1 Shorter Ave., and the Rec department is also taking reservations for private pool parties. The cost for those parties is $175 to $200, depending on the day, plus $30 for each lifeguard.
Open swim, at $6 a pop for anyone older than 4, will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Children 12 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.
The swim center has a splash area for younger kids and a full-sized pool with slide. Odin O’Connell, 11, said he loves the slide, but he’d like to see more features added.
“How about a tube, a closed-in dome, that goes all the way around the pool,” he said excitedly.
“That will never happen,” his 13-year-old sister, Annie O’Connell, said philosophically.
Meanwhile, the temperature Sunday hit a high of 84 and the National Weather Service is predicting it will break 90 on Tuesday.
Today’s forecast calls
for a high near 87, with little breeze, and a low of 61 tonight.
The rest of the week is
expected to be mostly sunny, with highs of 89 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.