Lifeguard Damen Jeg, 20, Chehalis, goes down one of the two newly installed waterslides at the Gail and Carolyn Shaw Aquatic Center in Chehalis on Tuesday.
Just before noon on Friday, children of all ages gathered together waiting for the Gail and Carolyn Shaw Aquatics Center to officially open in Chehalis.
Once the doors opened to the $2.7 million aquatic center, the children ran toward a variety of choices including two spiral slides, a diving board and the beach-style entry pool.
The Mint City’s new attraction will be open daily from noon to 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Admission is $2.50 for children and $3 for adults.
Dawson Haworth, a 13-year-old from Chehalis, said he had been waiting all summer for the aquatic center to open. He was the first to jump off the diving board and go down the two slides.
“The whole pool looks better. I think the diving board is better than the old one,” Haworth said.
Haworth and many other children seemed to agree their favorite part of the aquatic center was either the new diving board or the blue, enclosed slide.
“The blue one you can go faster and it’s pitch black so you don’t know where you are,” Haworth said.
Crews with Schwiesow Construction, the contractor from Centralia, worked all year to turn the former Chehalis Outdoor Pool into an all-inclusive aquatic center.
“It was a lot of hard work by the contractor and the sub-contractors and the city staff. Everybody really worked together to make this happen,” Connie Bode, project leader for the Chehalis Foundation, said. “It’s a culmination of a dream.”
Plans for the aquatic center started nearly three years ago when the nonprofit Chehalis Foundation contacted the city of Chehalis about improving the Chehalis Outdoor Pool.
The partners simply wanted to raise money for about $200,000 for plumbing upgrades. However, after hundreds of donations, and state and federal grants, the scope of the project increased.
“We all agreed that was a priority for us to keep the pool operational,” Bode said. “Three years later, because of the vision and support of dedicated people, we have been able to put together a fabulous facility at the entrance of Chehalis.”
Mayor Dennis Dawes said the aquatic center represents another positive project for the city similar to the efforts that brought the Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library, and soon a children’s museum.
“We are very excited about the opening of the pool. To see it come to completion, we are very appreciative of the Chehalis Foundation and of course the 500 donors,” Dawes said. “It’s just another jewel of the community that shows the vast support the community has given us.”
Parents see the new aquatic center as a safe place for their children to learn to swim. Pool staff welcomes parents to bring their own life jackets for their children or borrow some from the pool.
Joyce Hoerling, of Centralia, brought her granddaughter, Tatum Hoerling, to the pool Friday afternoon. Joyce Hoerling, a member of the Keep Our Pool group in Centralia, said the success of the Chehalis aquatic center gives Centralia motivation to reopen the Pearl Street Pool.
“This is what kids need to be doing in the summer,” she said.
The city plans to keep the pool open past the usual closing date of Labor Day, which is welcome news to the children swimming around Friday afternoon.
Tatum Hoerling traveled from her home in Auburn to be the first in line Friday. She told her grandmotherthat she hopes to be back next week.
“It’s very fun. I like having the blue slide. Once you get deeper in it, it gets darker,” Tatum Hoerling said. “The blue slide is my favorite thing there.”
