Just how much pool will $5.5 million buy?
The public can find out this Saturday, at an open house at the new Don Nakata Pool and larger Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center.
The event will give users a preview of the layout before the pool is filled with water next month.
“We’re getting a heck of a lot,” said John DeMeyer, park district aquatics supervisor. “By capitalizing on the existing pool…we’ll have a major two-pool complex, plus a water slide, two complete locker rooms and a family changing area. That’s a 30,000 square foot facility.
“And everybody will have access. There’s something for everyone.”
The event, slated from 4-6 p.m., will include tours of the facility; photo displays of the various stages of construction; refreshments; and the opportunity to purchase engraved pavers, the stones that will flank the new entrance.
Participants will also get a glimpse of the water slide, made possible by an anonymous $100,000 donation. The convoluted, 183-foot-long blue tubing lies almost entirely outside the building and features a 19-foot drop.
The twisting ride will last about 20 seconds – about eight of which will be in total darkness – before riders emerge into a final run-out inside the building.
Designers decided against a pool entry, increasing the amount of time that the slide will be open during the day.
With the slide provided for, the pool will be essentially completed except for the sauna, steam room and ozonator which will be added as soon as the necessary funds are raised.
The schedule calls for the new pool to be filled with water on Nov. 6 – after a two-week window for the new paint to cure – and it will open informally on Nov. 13.
At that point the Ray Williamson Pool will be shut down to install overhead sprinklers.
The grand opening – featuring the first ride down the water slide, the first dives off the new boards and the ceremonial destruction of the temporary wall between the two pools – will follow as soon as the sprinkler work is finished.
Then the newly designated Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center will be officially open for business.
DeMeyer said all dates are still tentative.
“Every time I turn around there’s a new wrinkle,” he said. “The sandblasting, for example, took longer than anticipated.”
Primary funding comes from a
