Work winding down on new pool

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

As temperatures escalate, workers are hard at work finishing up final details at the Walton Pool while children -- and a few adults -- wait impatiently for opening day.

"I've got people volunteering to be the first in the pool," said Carol Branham, director of Nevada's Parks and Recreation Deparatment. "Everyone I know is ready for it to open."

Opening day is scheduled for Saturday, May 29, during the Memorial Day weekend. All the work should be finished by then and all areas of the pool ready for use.

Branham was proud that the pool is more accessible than previously.

"Some of our special-needs children are really waiting impatiently," Branham said. "They will be able to do so much more now that the pool has all the new features."

Nora Quitno, a member of the parks board, said her children are just as impatient as anyone else's.

"They can't wait," Quitno said. "My son John, who's 5, has been with me when I've toured the pool as part of the board and he's ready now. We're going to have to be sure he's ready so he can use the slide, that's what he's waiting for."

Quitno pointed out the pool can be twice as effective now that the pool has two sides.

"They can have an adult lap swim on one side while kids are in the other side playing in the sprayground."

The renovations are mainly all finished, it's the detail work that remains -- like painting geometric shapes on the concrete deck, making sure the sun shades are all in place, and filling the cracks in the cement with caulk, among other things.

Denny Hurley and Kevin Moore were both hard at work Tuesday, painting designs on the concrete near the pool, but joking with each other over the quality of each others work.

"Just try to stay inside the lines," Hurley quipped in response to a jibe by Moore. "Pretend it's a coloring book."