People will soon be able to splash in the Washington public pool. The facility will be open starting June 26. Pools were delayed in opening due to COVID-19 restrictions from the governor. At Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting the plan to reopen the Steele Family Aquatic Center for general swimming was presented. City Administrator Brent Hinson said many area pools aren’t opening and the new rules will be an adjustment, “Basically the easy thing to do is to not open the pool this summer. The hard thing to do is to open the pool but have restrictions on it that we’ve never had before. And frankly, it has the potential to have people yelled at every single day, but we’re just going to have to do what we need to do.”

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the pool’s capacity will be 100 people and the concession stand will not be open. People can bring in their own bottled water. The pool will be open in two shifts from 1-3:30 p.m. and from 4-6:30 p.m. During the break between, staff will be cleaning. During the first phase of opening, only people who live within the city limits of Washington will receive priority admittance. People should be prepared to show ID. If the 100-person capacity has not been met in the first half-hour of the shift then daily passes will be sold to people from the surrounding area.

Admittance will be $4 per person. No season passes will be sold this summer. Every person under the age of 12 must be supervised by an adult 18 or older. Social distancing of six feet will be encouraged and everyone must sanitize their hands before entering the facility.

The Kalona pool will also be opening June 26th with similar rules.