Pool bringing in swimmers from wide area
SOUDERTON >> With Quakertown’s pool closed this summer for renovations and some other area public pools either not selling daily passes or limiting the daily passes to residents of that town, the Souderton pool has sold daily passes to people from within a wide area, Borough Manager Mike Coll told borough council at its July 19 work session.
That area stretches from as far south as the North Philadelphia/Cheltenham area to as far north as Coopersburg, as far west as Royersford/Limerick and east to Doylestown, he said.
“Some are following families, obviously, but some are simply looking for a venue they can’t get elsewhere,” Coll said.
Season ticket sales are about what was budgeted, he said. Daily ticket sales have been below budget in early figures, but the July numbers aren’t in yet, he said.
Daily passes for the Souderton pool are only available for Mondays through Fridays this year.
That seems to be popular with season ticket holders, Coll said.
“It certainly has helped control the level of patrons in the pool to a more manageable level and it’s encouraging more membership sales,” he said.
Council President Brian Goshow said he’s heard from season ticket holders who said not allowing daily tickets on the weekend is great, but he noticed on a recent hot Saturday that there were fewer people at the pool than would have been expected.
“It’s empty, and I think we’re missing out on revenue there,” Goshow said.
Daily sales are important to the pool, but there’s also a flip side, Coll said.
“The unfortunate side of dailies is that disciplinary problems really are from the dailies,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s Covid-related or what,” Coll said, “but disciplinary issues are a little heavier this season than in the past.”
This year, Souderton contracted out for the management of the pool to Bennington Pool Services.
Borough workers are spending more time on pool-related work than in previous years, though, Coll said.
Daily passes are sold at the borough office, which leaves borough office workers spending the majority of their time from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. selling pool tickets, he said. Public works employees are at the pool each day doing filter maintenance and cleaning and disinfecting bathhouses, he said.
There will be a lot to discuss about the pool after the end of the swim season, but overall things are working well, he said.
Coll also said there was a report on a recent morning that there was broken glass in the pool, which could have caused the pool to have to be closed, drained, cleaned and refilled.
It turned out to be tempered plastic, not glass, he said.
“It was actually a scuba goggle that shattered and it was confined to one area of the pool,” Coll said.
That area was isolated and vacuumed for hours, after which the pool was able to be opened at noon, he said.
The incident was apparently tied to swim team use of the pool that morning, he said. The broken goggles were found in a trash can, he said.