New facility draws 38,000 people in its inaugural year
In its inaugural season, the Burlington Community Aquatic Center made a big splash, according to Director Jeanne Otter.
Otter, in an interview last August, said the newly minted pool saw more than 38,000 people come through the doors and a significant influx of memberships.
“It was fabulous. The response was overwhelming,” Otter said. “People came from everywhere, once they walked through the doors, they were amazed.”
As for memberships, she estimated 250 would be issued, but the $5 million facility sold more than 800 total memberships.
The prosperous season, Otter said, went well beyond the 4,900 in attendance the former pool brought in during its final season in 2017.
“They didn’t start tearing down the old pool until after Labor Day last year,” said Otter, who credited Scherrer Construction for its management services. “It was pretty amazing to get it done.”
The new pool features two pools, a current channel, three large water slides, two diving boards, and a rock-climbing wall, among other amenities.
“We literally got in two weeks before it opened,” she said. “There was a lot of onsite training.”
To meet state rules for waterparks, lifeguards were mandated to take an additional four-hour training course.
While the pool never exceeded capacity, Otter said there were days when more than 1,000 people in total visited the facility, but not at the same time.
As for its peak, she said the pool saw more people between late-June to mid-July, when the area experienced favorable weather.
“There were only two days in July where we had to close because of weather,” she said. “We were lucky weather-wise, we had really good weather.”
Typically, she said anywhere from 500 to 600 people visited on a daily basis.
To read the full list of the Standard Press’ Top 20 News Stories of 2018 see the Jan. 3 edition of the newspaper.
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