By The Public Communications Office
In this episode of “What’s Up, College Station?” Marketing Coordinator Grace Hallowell and Aquatics Supervisor Ashley Waldon discuss the city’s aquatics programs, facilities, summer jobs, and how to rent a pool for parties and other events.
Transcript
Grace Hallowell:
What’s up College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today I’m joined by Ashley Waldon, our aquatics and special event supervisor. Hi, Ashley.
Ashley Waldon:
Hi, how are you?
Grace Hallowell:
I’m doing well. So, we are hurrying into summer here. It’s approaching fast.
Ashley Waldon:
Yes.
Grace Hallowell:
So, you have a lot of exciting things to talk about with our pools.
Ashley Waldon:
Definitely. Yes.
Grace Hallowell:
So, let’s start things off talking about our pool rentals.
Ashley Waldon:
Absolutely. Yeah. So, we have Adamson Lagoon and Cindy Hallaran pools available for rentals starting on March 1st. There are different time slots from May all the way through August where you can rent out our facilities. They can be used for birthday parties, socials, really any event that you can think of as long as it’s not a paid partnership.
Grace Hallowell:
So are there different tiers to the rentals that you can do, or is there kind of like a one and done deal?
Ashley Waldon:
Absolutely. Yeah. So, with Adamson Lagoon, there is different tiers based off the number of people you have attending your event. So, it does go up in price based upon the number of participants that you have. It’s based off of 100 people, 200, and then 300 to 600. There’s also a resident and non-resident fee that’s included in that.
Grace Hallowell:
So those are, I assume, going to fill up rather quickly, so it’s best to reserve your time slot or your dates sooner rather than later.
Ashley Waldon:
Yes. We have had tons of residents asking when we are opening for rentals. That is on March 1st. So, you can contact our parks department at 979-764-3486 is the number you’ll want to call so that you can reserve your spot. That does open up on March 1st.
Grace Hallowell:
Perfect. So yes, March 1st, be ready to reserve your space.
Ashley Waldon:
Absolutely.
Grace Hallowell:
And then as far as our swim passes go, talk a little bit about that. When do our pools officially open for this season?
Ashley Waldon:
So, we open on Memorial Day weekend. We have a few different pass options. You can choose to buy for all of our pools or just Cindy Hallaran. We have a family pass, so you can get your whole family involved in coming out to our pools. And that is up to five people and there’s an additional charge for each member added. We also have our discount pass, which is 25 entries. So, you buy the pass, and you get to come in 25 times, and then you can renew your discount pass if you get to that point. We also have the individual pass.
So, if you’re just looking for yourself to go to the pool, we do have an option for you as well with passes.
Grace Hallowell:
Talking more about the discount pass, so it’s 25 visits, are there any special dates that you can’t use a visit for?
Ashley Waldon:
No. Any holidays come on in. As long as you have that pass, we swipe it, and you get to go enjoy our pools.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, that is a great option, especially if you don’t know your schedule for this summer and just want to come a few times.
Ashley Waldon:
Exactly.
Grace Hallowell:
When do our splash pads open? I know those are popular for families with little ones.
Ashley Waldon:
Yes, that opens on March 1st and goes all the way through October as well. We have two different facilities for our splash pads. We have our WA Tarrow Splash pad and then our Fun for All Splash Pad, which is located over at Stephen C. Beachy Central Park.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. I know as a kid I enjoyed going to the splash pads and I did swim lessons all throughout school until I was in high school. So, what other programs do we have for our aquatic facilities?
Ashley Waldon:
So yeah, we have some awesome programs. We have different certification classes through the American Red Cross, which include lifeguarding, water safety instructor, lifeguard instructor, as well as our swim lessons, which range from babies up until adults as well. Anybody can come participate in our swim lessons. We also have our tsunami swim team, which will be starting up in May. We have our Master swim program, which is a new program we’re bringing for adults who want to lap swim and get some more technique refinement in their strokes.
We also have our water aerobics programs, which are held over at Cindy Hallaran for the majority of the summer. We have three different classes for water fitness and water aerobics.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, a great low impact exercise while still getting your workout in. Going back to the lifeguard certification, I know we’re looking for lifeguards now. The search has started.
Ashley Waldon:
Absolutely.
Grace Hallowell:
So, what do people need to do if they’re interested to become a lifeguard?
Ashley Waldon:
So, if you’re interested in lifeguarding with us this summer, you can always go to the College Station employment page to apply for a position. We do ask that all our staff be pre-certified before we hire you on, but we will help with your certification classes. We will also reimburse you for your classes at the end of the season if you can stay throughout August.
Grace Hallowell:
That’s a great incentive.
Ashley Waldon:
Yeah. And even if you’re dual certified, you can be water safety instructor certified and lifeguard certified and get 50¢ increase in your rate.
Grace Hallowell:
Yeah. And it’s a fun summer job to have. You get to be outside; you get to be by the pool.
Ashley Waldon:
All of the returning staff that I’ve interviewed so far, I ask them what their favorite part of the job was, and they just always talk about the culture and the family that they’ve built over at the pools.
Grace Hallowell:
Yeah. It’s really a tight-knit group and you’ll find your people there.
Ashley Waldon:
Absolutely.
Grace Hallowell:
All right. So where can people find out more if they have any questions about any of our facilities or anything about our pools?
Ashley Waldon:
That will be at cstx.gov/pools. All of our information is on that website.
Grace Hallowell:
All right. Is there anything else you can share with us today?
Ashley Waldon:
It is an amazing employment opportunity for your first job, especially getting to work as a team with other people and gaining so many important skills. I highly do recommend working at College Station Aquatics.
Grace Hallowell:
All right. Well, thank you so much for being here today, Ashley.
Ashley Waldon:
Thank you.
Grace Hallowell:
And that’s what’s up.
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