Belfast’s public swimming pool will open on Saturday, the city says.
“We are doing our best,” said Adrien Lumumba, Belfast’s director of parks and recreation. “We are working very hard to get the pool open.”
Lumumba didn’t give a specific reason for why the outdoor pool hasn’t opened already this summer, but he said recent rains delayed preparations and that the department has been busy getting the city’s parks ready for summer and some staff have been out sick.
“It’s just a matter of getting enough people out there to work on the pool,” he said.
With school out and a heat wave on the horizon, Belfast residents have been asking when the pool will open but have gotten little information from the city, The Belfast, Maine Conversation reported on Monday. Last year, the pool was closed for repairs until the first week of August and then closed for the season in mid-September.
For the moment, cooling off at City Park’s beach is not much of an alternative; the state is advising against swimming there due to high bacteria levels. A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection said more water testing is being done on Tuesday and results should be available on Wednesday afternoon.
The City Park pool has been nearly completely drained, Lumumba said, and now needs to be cleaned and refilled.
The city has enough staff and lifeguards to keep the pool open during its regular schedule once it opens, Lumumba said.