City of College Station Blog

By Colin Killian, Public Communications Director

In this week’s episode of “What’s Up, College Station?” Grace Hallowell and Aquatics Supervisor Jessica Scott discuss the City’s two public swimming pools, Adamson Lagoon and Cindy Hallaran Pool, including admission costs, amenities, policies, and programs.

The pools open at noon on Saturday, May 24.

 The “What’s Up, College Station?” podcast is available weekly via Podbean, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon/Audible. Please subscribe, rate, and recommend!

If you have a suggestion for a future topic or interview, email me at ckillian@cstx.gov.

TRANSCRIPT

Grace Hallowell:

What’s up College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today my guest is, Jessica Scott, our Aquatic Supervisor. We were talking before we started about how this week is the turning point when things are starting to heat up and get uncomfortable. But thankfully, our college station pools are here to help keep everybody cool.

Jessica Scott:

Yes, we open next Saturday. We are actually opening both our facilities up. Adamson Lagoon and Cindy Hallaran are in next Saturday, May 24 at noon.

Grace Hallowell:

I know a lot of people have been anticipating that. Our splash pads have been open for a little while now, but as the summer heats up, we need a full dip in the pool.

Jessica Scott:

I’ve had plenty of phone calls and we are ready. I am fully staffed. We do our last little bit of summer training next Wednesday, and then we’re ready to go starting Saturday.

Grace Hallowell:

So how can people visit our pools? Do they need to register for any passes? Are there daily passes available?

Jessica Scott:

We accept walk-ins, Adamson Lagoon is $7 per person, even if you are not swimming. And Cindy Hallaran is $4 per person, even if you’re not swimming, two and younger are free. And then yes, we do have annual swim passes. Adamson Lagoon for an individual is $210, a family is $365 up to five family members. And then if you want a Cindy Hallaran pass, those are $158 for an individual, $263 for family.

Grace Hallowell:

Let’s talk about the differences between the two facilities. I know I’ve only been to Adamson Lagoon and not Cindy Hallaran. So what are the differences there?

Jessica Scott:

Adamson Lagoon has our two big slides. We also have a stump slide or we have a medium-sized slide and then we also have a designated baby pool that has a few fun features. We also have a giant lap swimming pool that during public swim we take out the lanes so that we have more pool space to utilize. Kids love to go down the slides and jump in the water.

And then at Cindy Hallaran, everyone knows it as the clam slide pool. We actually just renovated our new clam slide, so it’s all nice and pretty and painted. It has a zero-depth entry, so a beach entry. So all the littles love to go to that pool and walk in with their parents and they go down that slide. And then we also have a couple lanes for utilization for that as well.

Grace Hallowell:

I love that beach entry. I grew up on the Great Lakes in Lake Erie, so that was how I learned to swim was in the lake. And whenever I would go to the public pool and there was a ladder, I’d be like, “I don’t know what to do.”

Jessica Scott:

I 100% understand. And then I always love watching kids struggle to get out and I’m like, “There’s a ladder right there. Please go use that.”

Grace Hallowell:

Teaching kids how to swim is a really important skill for them to learn, especially at an early age. And we offer swim lessons as well.

Jessica Scott:

We are full-blown into swim lesson registration right now. We have everything from water babies and parents. So anybody two and a half and younger, you come in with your parents and the mommy and me class that they get to utilize. We’ve got preschool A and B, preschool A or more for the tiny little new babies. And then preschool B is my four or five year olds that are a little bit more comfortable in the water. We have learn-to-swim level classes for my six and olds. And we’ve got some adult classes.

This year, we are offering private swim lessons. So if you would like to register for that, we have a form on our College Station aquatic webpage and along with our adaptive aquatics that we utilize with our special needs program. We pretty much start June 2. They are two week sessions Monday through Thursday, and we go every two weeks all summer long.

Grace Hallowell:

I mentioned I grew up near water, that I’ve known how to swim since before I could walk, but I know that that’s not necessarily common, especially if you did not grow up near water. It is a very important skill for kids and even adults. These programs are great. They’re tailored to your skill level. There is no need to feel embarrassed. The instructors are great.

Jessica Scott:

We actually have some new instructors. I’m teaching a water safety instructor class this weekend to teach the new swim lesson instructors how to teach classes. I’ve hired some really good kiddos that are really excited to teach and they love to hang out and I think they’re big kids as well. So most of my kids love to hang out with all the big kids that teach them how to swim.

Grace Hallowell:

It is a fun summer job, but it’s an important one because safety is obviously the number one priority there.

Jessica Scott:

Absolutely. My lifeguards and my WSI’s and my swim coaches do weekly trainings just to keep on top of our skills because we know while life guarding swim lessons, swim coaching for our summer league is a really fun summer job. We also are in charge of everyone’s safety. I’ve got to get everybody to come in alive and have everybody leave safe and happy and a little sunburned.

Grace Hallowell:

Along with that, there are some swim attire rules because this is not your backyard pool. This is a public pool. So what sorts of outfits are not allowed at the college station pools?

Jessica Scott:

No cotton clothing, no socks, no thong bikinis. Sorry girls. No regular straight clothing. If you have a dry fit shirt on as a rash guard, that’s totally okay. But no cotton.

Grace Hallowell:

If people have questions or want to find out more information, where can they go to find that information?

Jessica Scott:

Cstx.gov/pools has information about our hours and admissions, swim attire policy, anything about our programs and facility rentals. It has all the information you could possibly need. And you can always call 979-764-3540 that goes straight to my line, and I answer lots of questions.

Grace Hallowell:

People can come and check out the facilities if they want to see what things look like.

Jessica Scott:

I strongly encourage anyone to come check out the pools. We’ve done a lot of cleaning this summer or this spring. Much to my part-time staff enjoyment. So 100% making sure that it looks nice and pretty for our patrons.

Grace Hallowell:

Thank you so much joining me today.

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