| A young man enjoys the newly opened Helper swimming pool one hot afternoon. City officials are planning a grand opening on July 21. |
The Helper city council decided last Thursday to schedule the grand opening for the city’s swimming pool on July 21.
During the past couple of weeks, there has been some misinformation about when the grand opening celebration will take place.
But during the regularly scheduled council meeting on July 5, the date was set by Helper officials.
“There has been a rumor running around town that we were going to have the celebration earlier,” said Helper Mayor Mike Dalpiaz. “But things aren’t quite ready and we want everything to be operational before we have the opening party.”
While the swimming pool opened for business on June 28, some of the facilities are not yet operational.
The concessions stand is nearing completion and a boiler that warms the water in the swimming pool should be on line in the next couple of weeks, according to Helper officials. There is also some landscaping to finish around the pool.
But Councilmember Dean Armstrong pointed out that the finishing touches will be left until the fall after Helper’s pool closes.
“Mostly, it is just some grass that needs to go in, but we don’t want to stir up dust and get it into the pool,” explained Armstrong on July 5. “We have been controlling the dust from the unfinished areas so that it doesn’t bother pool patrons.”
Armstrong also pointed out during the council meeting that the city should look at putting up some new signs to direct people to the pool.
“Even without that, we have been getting some good crowds at the pool,” he stated. “On July 4, the place was packed.”
Armstrong also said that a couple of business owners in Helper have told him that since the pool opened their business has picked up.
“People from outside of Helper are going into some of the businesses,” said Armstrong. “That’s a good sign.”
Aaron Cox, the Helper swimming pool’s manager, noted the facility is already attracting approximately 200 visitors per day in most cases.
Discussion among the councilmembers concerning the pool lasted for almost an hour, with a lot of details being worked out so that the grand opening could take place.
The swimming pool construction project was financed through private donations and money from various government agencies, including the Utah Permanent Community Impact Board and the Carbon County Recreation and Transportation Special Service District.
Dalpiaz pointed out that a lot of the incidentals involved in getting the pool open when officials did were due to city personnel and some of the Helper councilmembers who had worked to get the facility ready.
During the discussion, Councilmember Bob Farrell identified a long list of things that needed to be completed and concerns that had been brought up to him about various matters at the pool.
But by the end of the discussion, most of the concerns were resolved or had plans of action developed.
Farrell, who was the councilmember overseeing Helper’s old pool when the facility was condemned, said he was pleased with the way things had progressed.
“It’s great to have the pool open and up and running again,” commented Farrell.