The city pool is one of the most popular places during Iowa's hot summer months.

Daily, hundreds of kids visit their city's pool for something fun to do while they enjoy their summer break and it's a nice way to stay cool when the weather heats up. When I was growing up, we'd bike to our pool in the morning for swimming lessons and sometimes we'd just stay at the pool for the rest of the afternoon. When I got to high school, I had one of my first jobs at our city's pool.

The city pool in Marion recently had to be closed down but thankfully it was only for a short period. It was determined a broken light in the pool caused the short-term closure. While the pool did have to be closed for a brief stint, could this potentially be the best thing to happen to the Marion pool?

New Aquatic Center?

According to KCRG, a lap swimmer noticed one of the underwater lights was cracked and the pool had glass in it. The last thing someone wants to do is step on broken glass at the bottom of the pool, so the pool needed to be completely drained and refilled before re-opening its doors.

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It is believed that the broken light was due to an aging aquatic facility. There has been a proposal, since 2021, for a new aquatic center to be built in Marion.

The potential new aquatic center would bring more waterslides, a lazy river, an upgraded kiddie pool, a ninja cross obstacle course, a dive pool with 2 diving boards, a new deck area with shade for seating, a lazy river, and a splash pad. While no pool wants to have broken glass on their pool floor, could this potentially help kickstart the construction of a new aquatic center?

According to KCRG, the construction could begin in 2026. If this aquatic center is built, it would allow for the pool to remain open longer and it is believed it would give the public much more opportunities to be open for "open swim."

It would look something like this!

I can imagine how excited both kids and their parents would be to have a brand new pool for them to visit in the possibly upcoming years. My childhood friends and I would've spent every day at a place like this growing up.