Jacksboro to attempt to open city pool

After announcing the pool was not opening for the summer on May 6, the Jacksboro City Council directed City Manager Mike Smith to attempt to have the pool opened by mid-June in its May 11 meeting.

Smith said the city had originally decided it was not going to be possible to open the pool this summer, despite Gov. Greg Abbott announcing pools could open for the summer on May 5.

“We have some additional challenges to that, in order to operate a Class B swimming, which is basically a municipal swimming pool, you have to have someone who has a Certified Pool Operator certification,” Smith said. “Well John Moffett was CPO certified, but his certification has actually lapsed and we were not able to get him into a class because most one on one or face to face training had stopped.”

Last week, we found out that the CPO training, you can get it online,” Smith said. “(…) We are probably looking at the end of May before I could make that happen. Once we get a certified CPO individual and get them caught up on how our pool operates then we have to some lifeguards trained.”

The city manager said he purposely made an effort not to offer lifeguard jobs in February like normal and not open due to COVID-19 and those committed lifeguards be unable to find a summer job because all other jobs being filled.

Smith said he believes the best option would be to open the pool for three days a week and available for private parties.

The council told Smith if he can get the pool open by mid June without there being a change in COVID-19 then it can open if not it will remained closed for the summer.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, May 20, edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.