April 28

The pool site has been very busy lately. Payne construction is really pushing to finish up the project next month. The exterior of the building changes daily, and the siding going up in a couple of days time. Some people have asked why the building has a wing, or why its so high. The answer to both of these is efficiency. The pool will have passive solar assisted heating mounted on the south facing roof. Although heated with natural gas, the pool water will be pumped through tubing on the roof to absorb solar radiation and keep heating costs down. An angled roof so the sun means a low end and a high end. The building is also designed to be self cooling. There is no heating or cooling equipment in the building. The large louvers on both sides are intended to encourage air circulation by essentially creating a draft through the building.

We will be giving tours of the facility on the morning of the grand opening so people can get a little peek at whats going on behind the scenes. It's pretty exciting and a little nerve wracking that we will be opening for business soon! Everybody has been busy making sure we have what we need. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's finally becoming a reality!

Our fund raising campaign wrapped up with just over $60K in donations, most of which came from local businesses and supportive residents. Thanks to everyone who helped!

April 22

You can almost smell the chlorine....

We had a bit of excitement last Friday when heavy winds and saturated soils combined to bring down a large fir tree just outside the pool areas. It brought down the power lines right on top of the blue job shack with the guys inside! Luckily the transformer popped and none of the lines were live.

Heavy rains put a bit of a damper on things at the site this week, but fund raising was fast and furious as brick orders flew in to beat the March 31 due date. Siuslaw bank came through with a contribution that helped push our fund raising total to over 50K. At the pool, roofing is still underway and equipment is being moved in. Looks like we will wrap up construction by mid May. Dean Payne and his crews have done a great job of keeping things on track and on budget. On monday the City Council will consider whether it's time to set a date for a grand opening celebration. We're hoping for the saturday after school gets out.

We're getting lots of interest in life guard positions. Check out the links here and on the City's website if you're interested in lifeguarding this summer. The first round of training will begin in two weeks. Stacy Cornelius, our recreation coordinator for the last 4 years has been hired as our pool manager. Those of you who know Stacy know that she will do a great job. We've got a lot of work to do yet, but we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.