Normalcy has returned to the Tracy Aquatic Center. And the timing couldn’t be better.
After being forced to close the doors for a few days last week because of an unexpected chemical imbalance that turned the water different colors, order — and clear water — has been restored and the kids returned last Friday in full force.
“People weren’t afraid to go swimming, so that was good,” aquatic center manager Shannon Benson said Saturday. “It’s encouraging that people are still buying passes, because I think maybe some people would’ve been concerned and waiting until everything got fixed. We’re relieved. Last week, if we had to be closed, that was the week to be closed because it was cool all the way until Wednesday.”
This past Saturday, there were still remnants of the water issues on the bottom of the pool, but it was merely cosmetic.
“That’s just the normal Tracy water — everybody’s got rust in their water,” Benson said. “Everything looks good. You can’t clean the bottom up too fast, because then it kills the chlorine, and when you over-chlorinate it could turn purple again.”
It appears the pool has made a relatively quick rebound.
“We had a great day (Friday),” Benson said. “We had a lot of swimmers and did a lot of concessions. We also had our fist night of lessons (Friday) night, and that went pretty good.”
Swimming lessons were supposed to begin this past Monday, but the threat of bad weather cancelled them. The pool also lost power Tuesday, once again shutting down lessons.
The pool should be well-used into the near future. Temps hit the mid-80s on Sunday and are expected to climb into the mid- to upper 90s this weekend. The mercury could touch 100 either Saturday or Sunday.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.