Ships sink, baseballs sink, submarines sink. What do you mean the POOL sank? Before our current recreation center opened and after the Water Street town pool closed, the Town of Meeker built a pool on School Street where the solar panel farm is now. The School Street pool operated during the 1980’s and 1990’s, when it was closed due to the foundation shifting and other mechanical failures. It puzzled the pool manager and the town manager because hundreds of gallons of water were needed every day to maintain the water level. There were no visible cracks in the aluminum prefabricated pool, yet water kept disappearing at an increasing rate. The 25-yard pool was not big enough to evaporate that much water.
Before it closed, this pool was a place of learning and good fun. It had low cinderblock walls painted white. The sides were open when it was built. No one seems to know why the outdoor pool was designed with a roof. One theory was that we could have been trying to keep everyone from sunburning. That sounds reasonable. Everyone agrees on the unintended result of the roof: the water never got warm from the sun. Any breeze at all would create a wind tunnel effect. Patrons had two choices: stay in the water and swim to keep warm or retreat to grassy area outside the roofed area. Lifeguards had no choice. John Strate recounted a time when he came in to lifeguard during morning swim lessons. At 6 a.m., he sat bundled up in a sleeping bag trying to keep warm. Kids often sported blue lips during the lessons. John remembered one day having lessons canceled on account of … SNOW. Ahh, summer in Meeker! Later Henry Kravis donated some glass panels that helped slow down the wind tunnel. The panels originally enclosed a private pool built upriver built by Malcom Bricklin during his extravagant era before his Yugo car import business imploded and he went bankrupt.
Amazingly, the cold water did not deter the residents from coming in droves. Shelly Rogers coached very active U.S.A. swim teams there. The 30-plus members of the team had the logo of a Mako Shark. Shelly coached from 1999 until 2002. She was coaching her last year very pregnant with her son.
Many good memories are associated with the School Street pool. Sometimes they would show a movie while everyone relaxed in the pool. Imagine watching “Jaws” and having someone brush against your leg underwater. Informal belly-flop contests were held and the prize for the most spectacular belly-flop would be a Pepsi. I wonder how many Pepsis would it take to console the winner’s stinging body parts. Tiki parties were organized. I am told that occasionally teens would sneak back after hours and climb out on the rafters to drop into the pool for that big splash. The pool would be covered after hours, which did not stop unauthorized personnel from daring each other to run across the canvas until they sank.
I have unsubstantiated reports of a certain group of lifeguards who traveled to Craig or Rifle and returned home with tattoos of Tasmanian Devils and hearts in unspecified regions.
Andrea Reichert related a story to me. Kids would often use the telephone at the customer desk to call home for a ride. It was a rotary dial phone. As time went on, most homes had touchtone phones installed. Rotary phones were phased out by the 1990’s, except the pool phone. Each year, there would be more and more kids who were offered the use of the desk phone, only to stand and stare at it as some sort of foreign technology. They did not know how to use it!
All fun and games aside, the swim program was adamant about teaching as many swimmers as possible. Michelle Riegel Miller and many others were involved with creating programs to teach challenged children and adults. Lifeguards were coached in how to deal with patrons who were deaf, hearing impaired, or otherwise handicapped. To simulate being handicapped, lifeguards wore goggles stuffed with cotton or stuffed ears, while other guards approached them in the water. I do wish we could find some pictures of them looking like aliens. Lifeguards also had the opportunity to learn water rescues on the White River, working in the deep water off the Franklin Bridge. Michelle remembers that Jill Meyers, who taught art class, brought her students to the pool to work on a spring project. Murals with water themes were painted on the sides of the pool, walls and locker rooms.
The pool closed when the foundation shifted. There was a gap of several years when Meeker did not have a pool to swim in.
It was not until 2008 that our current Recreation Center was funded and built. This year is the celebration of the Rec Center’s 15th anniversary.
By ED PECK
The old pool on School Street was known for being quite breezy and chilly, possibly because the roof and partial enclosure created a wind tunnel effect and kept the water from getting warm.
