The Washington public pool closes for the season at 5 p.m. today. The Steele Family Aquatic Center is ending its 2020 season today ahead of the school year starting on Monday. The city pool is managed by the Washington YMCA. YMCA of Washington County CEO Amy Schulte reflected on the challenging summer, “I think the collaboration between the city, the parks department, and the Y to open up this amenity for the community really speaks to the commitment that everyone has to ensure that residents have recreation opportunities, and health and wellness options, and so forth. So, that was a huge positive. Being able to offer lap swim and water walking for some of our community residents who really enjoy that activity and need that for their health and wellness was definitely a positive for us. The youth swim lessons is always a priority for the YMCA, so being able to offer those this year was a great thing.”

She did say that overall swim lesson numbers were down, but there were more children who took part in private lessons than last year.

The total pool attendance was down, and she said there were only a few days where they reached the 100-person capacity. She said each of the two daily sessions averaged between 50 and 60 people, which is low for a typical summer. She said the low attendance is not financially sustainable for the facility, so Schulte is hopeful next summer is back to normal.