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Where can you swim on Memorial Day? Here are Asheville and Buncombe pool openings.
Where can you swim on Memorial Day? Here are Asheville and Buncombe pool openings.

Yahoo

time26-05-2025

  • Climate
  • Yahoo

Where can you swim on Memorial Day? Here are Asheville and Buncombe pool openings.

ASHEVILLE - The city's and Buncombe County's public pools opened for summer over the Memorial Day weekend. Of the city's three pools, only one will be open for the season. Where can you swim this Memorial Day? Here are Asheville and Buncombe pool openings. While the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center pool opened May 24, along with the county's five outdoor pools, the Malvern Hills Park pool remains shuttered following last year's closure. Recreation Park pool, which sits along the Swannanoa River, was devastated by Tropical Storm Helene and also remains closed. The city plans to begin the design process to rebuild parks and recreation spaces along Azalea and Gashes Creek roads, including Recreation Park, later in May. The city has said previously it expects the "catastrophic damage" at the park, including the pool, may be largely covered by federal funds. Opened in 2023, the outdoor pool at Grant Southside Center off Depot Street features a toddler play zone, lounge deck, picnic tables, restrooms and changing rooms. The pool was built after the city closed the 1947 segregation-era Walton Street Pool in 2021, a beloved community fixture in Southside that faced costly mechanical and structural problems. Admission is $3 per person per day. For the 2025 season, regular pool hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Monday through Friday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday; and 12-7 p.m. on Sunday, though hours may vary due to weather or special events. Dates are May 24-Sept. 1 (weekends only before June 7 and after August 17) Swim Club Management Group manages all city pools and the splash pad and will oversee maintenance, hiring staff and daily operations. Learn more at The county has five outdoor community pools: Cane Creek, Hominy Valley, North Buncombe, Erwin and Owen. Admission is $4 per person per day. Pools will be open seven days a week from June 10 to Aug. 10. From May 24 to June 10, pools will be closed on weekdays while school is in session, except for Memorial Day, May 26, when all pool will be open. General pool hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday; 1-6 p.m. on Sunday; and 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays. Extended hours are offered at Cane Creek, Erwin and Hominy Valley on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Learn more at In 2024, the Southside United Neighborhood Association organized a steering committee and partnered with the city to collaborate on a community driven engagement process focused on revisioning the historic pool area through adaptive reuse. The timeline was impacted by Helene, but the committee has since restarted the process. An online survey seeking input is open through May 31 at Walton Street Park and pool was designated a local historic landmark in 2022 and added to the National Register of Historic Places. After Malvern Hills Park pool's closure, neighbors rallied around the 90-year-old pool, advocating for it to be funded as part of the $20 million parks and recreation bond referendum, which passed in November. A new aquatics facility was identified as a priority in the Recreate Asheville 10-year Plan. In an April presentation from interim Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas, the pool's design and construction was listed among GO Bond projects at $325,000 and $2.5 million, respectively. The city posted a Request for Qualifications seeking firms to help design the new pool in February. Parks and Recreation spokesperson Christo Bubenik said May 12 that the city's approval of a design contract is scheduled for May 27. Other bond-funded parks and recreation improvements could include the architectural conservation and repurposing of Walton Street Park's bathhouse and pool. Asheville Parks and Recreation will host water events throughout the summer, including river snorkeling, toddler programs, water aerobics and splash days at various city parks. The city also operates a free public splash pad in Pack Square Park daily. Find more information here: More: Asheville considers property tax increase amid $10M funding gap; What about pay raises? More: Asheville seeks design team to help rebuild Helene-damaged French Broad riverfront parks Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@ or message on Twitter at @slho This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Where can you swim on Memorial Day? Here are Asheville and Buncombe pool openings.

Maintenance of city's public swimming pools should be a priority
Maintenance of city's public swimming pools should be a priority

The Herald

time23-05-2025

  • The Herald

Maintenance of city's public swimming pools should be a priority

For many in Nelson Mandela Bay's northern areas and townships in particular, public swimming pools offer the only entertainment and relief from the heat during our blistering summers. Yet many of the facilities in these areas have been vandalised and left to deteriorate, some to a point where they are now beyond repair. Take for instance the derelict pool in Schauderville which has been out of commission for years. During a recent site visit, public works & infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson called on Eastern Cape MEC Siphokazi Lusithi to relocate the pool to a new site, citing the facility's vandalised and irreparable state. Stripped of infrastructure and left derelict since the Covid-19 lockdown, the facility posed a direct threat to residents, particularly children, according to DA northern areas constituency head Yusuf Cassim, who formally requested the relocation in a letter to Macpherson's office. 'There is an urgent need to relocate the long-abandoned pool, which has become a hotspot for criminal activity, illegal dumping and gang violence,' he said. A new site — on land opposite the Moore Dyke sports precinct and owned by the provincial public works department — has already been identified. And now it is up to the relevant officials and authorities to act to ensure a suitable facility is erected for those in this area and its surrounds, those who cannot afford transport to and entry fees at more expensive facilities or the Bay's many beaches. Because our public pools provide a safe space — in the areas where they live — for our children and teens to play, stay active and avoid negative influences such as drugs and crime which are rife in these communities. In addition, in a country where nearly 30% of drownings occur in children under the age of 14, these pools offer a space in which to host swimming lessons, a much-needed life skill. So it is imperative that municipalities, working with the other necessary arms of government, prioritise building and maintaining public swimming pools in disadvantaged communities and that they do so in partnership with NGOs, private sponsors, schools and surrounding communities — all of whom will then have a vested interest in ensuring the safekeeping of these facilities. The Herald

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