Photos by Sam Thiel The Marshall Aquatic Center will have separate zones with only 20 swimmers allowed in each zone as well as painted dots on the deck to promote social distancing.

MARSHALL — As the calendar dips into summer this weekend, so can many residents into area aquatic centers or pools. But like every other business, it will have a different feeling to it while trying to operate as normal.

Pools can start back up after Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan began on June 10. During this phase, capacity is limited to 50%.

Some pools, such as the one at Slaytona Beach West, are already up and running. Manager Krista Gillette said they were grateful to have gone through their alternate options before receiving the news they could open.

“We’re very grateful to have met with the city hall administrators and look through all of the what-ifs if we couldn’t get the pool open but then we received the news that we could open,” Gillette said. “The pools were already filled before last Friday and we’re excited to give our community a little bit of summer back.”

Others are delaying their opening. The Marshall Aquatic Center announced its plans to open this Sunday, while the Minneota Aquatic Center is looking towards a July opening, according to City Administrator Shirley Teigland.

Unfortunately, not all pools/aquatic centers will be open this summer. The Tracy Aquatic Center will remain closed throughout the summer, according to City Administrator Erik Hansen. He said since the governor kept delaying the opening date of pools, they weren’t able to prepare in time.

“The big issue is the governor opened the pools so late we couldn’t get prepared, so we had a staffing issue. We would have planned ahead, but we can’t get lifeguards trained in time and that was a result of COVID because training was closed,” Hansen said. “As a community it’s difficult and unfortunate. The council wished we were given guidance from the governor earlier, then we could have made preparations.”

Pools will be required to follow several guidelines, including social distancing on slides and boards and extra cleaning and sanitizing of the facility and equipment.

“The entry/exit will be marked off and there will be lines to keep social distancing on the slides and the diving boards,” Neil Witte, who manages the Tyler Aquatic Center, said. “There will be certain cleaning routines, with countertops, handles and faucets being cleaned hourly and ladders, slides and chairs being cleaned daily. We’ll also do a deep cleaning with disinfectant daily.”

At the Marshall Aquatic Center, Cam Bailey of Marshall Community Services said there will be three open swim sessions, all lasting an hour and 45 minutes per session. In between sessions as well as at the beginning of the day, cleaning and disinfecting will take place. The main and kiddie pools will be divided into zones, with 20 patrons allowed in the specific zones, with a maximum capacity of 160 per session.

Bailey added that people are allowed to swim all day as long as they follow the rules and the facility is within capacity.

“We’ve already been asked if a kid comes at noon and they swim for an hour and 45 minutes and they still want to swim, they can exit the pool like everyone else and then can get back in line for that second session,” Bailey said. “They can swim all day if they want, but if we’re at capacity, we’re at capacity and we won’t be able to accept anyone else.”

Many places also won’t be serving concessions. Masks are encouraged for employees and guests who are not in the pool, but swimming should not be allowed with masks on. Some pools will have lessons available this summer, but it will feature smaller group sizes and be limited to certain swim levels.

Gillette said at Slaytona Beach West, groups will be reduced from 15 to five swimmers and that private lessons and small group lessons will be available to Level 3-6 swimmers.

The Marshall Aquatic Center’s pool deck also got a new look to it, with blue and red dots painted in spaced out spots to help promote social distancing. Marshall Aquatic Center co-manager Nick Dunn said the community has been appreciative of the measures they are taking to keep people safe.

“They’re noticing all of the social distance work we are doing, which is really gratifying and nice to see,” Dunn said. “The other day we had a dad come by the fence and saw us painting (the social distancing spots) and he told us that we were doing a nice job and he was glad to see we were taking an effort to making sure we’re all safe here.”

In addition to the protocols, swimmers might see a price adjustment this summer. At Slaytona Beach West, Gillette said they will not be accepting cash and only passes or punch cards can be purchased.

“If they prefer not to do season passes, they can just do a punch card, which will hold about 10 admissions,” she said.

There will be no cash or card transactions handled or daily passes sold at the Marshall Aquatic Center either. Instead, Bailey said visitors will have to purchase an admission wristband, which will allow access throughout the summer to the facility. Prices range from $30 for an individual to $130 for six bands or more, with a maximum of eight. Purchases must be made online at https://bit.ly/2mIZEQh, in-person at the MCS office at Southwest Minnesota State University (in SS 139) or by phone at (507)-537-6767. Wristbands must be purchased in advance and are currently on sale.

While pools weren’t open during the past few months, they were still impacted by COVID in many ways. Gillette said despite bringing back the majority of its staff, scheduling has been a challenging task.

“A lot of our staff are graduates who picked up an additional job so it’s been a little difficult to try and schedule everyone,” Gillette said.

Another concern pools are facing have been the quick turn-around time to prepare its staff for the new changes, especially lifeguards. Teigland said they were able to have their lifeguards trained through the YMCA, while Witte said he had some staff members go over to South Dakota to get their certification.

“We always have Red Cross training in March, April and May but that was shut down, so our employees if they haven’t already gotten it before March have been able to go to South Dakota to get certifications,” Witte said.

Gillette is a lifeguard instructor herself, so she was able to train their incoming lifeguards last week.

“I’m a lifeguard instructor and I’ve taught our new lifeguards last week, but we’ll still do our inservice training with all 20 on staff and be ready,” Gillette said.

In an effort to help the stop of the spread of COVID-19, some places will only be open to residents in their own county. Gillette said they will only be open to Murray County residents but added many people from other towns have been understanding of the situation.

“The state guidelines say we can only have 50% capacity, so we needed to make a decision with how we could do that. When we heard that other area pools were not opening we were concerned that we would have an overflow of visitors,” Gillette said. “Unfortunately we can’t welcome all of our neighbors from other towns but thankfully they’ve been understanding and know it’s just a one-summer deal.”

As they move closer to summer, Marshall Aquatic Center co-manager Claire Martinson said they’re looking forward to seeing people come back and give them the opportunity to swim this summer.

“Seeing the regulars back,” Martinson said. “I didn’t know if we would get the opportunity to see the familiar faces back at the pool; growing up, this was always where I came almost every day in the summer and I’m just glad the kids will be afforded that same opportunity this year.”

“There’s just no better place to be on a hot sunny day than in the pool,” Gillette added.