The existing pool is in a sad state of disrepair. Each Spring the city, along with the Kiwanis swim team, spend over 100 hours of labor getting the pool ready for the new season. The preparations include patching cracks that have developed over the last year, re-mortaring chunks of concrete that have been dislodged through the previous pool season and freeze-thaw winter cycle and painting the entire pool with a pool grade oil-based paint. The pool has several significant cracks that cannot be patched over or repaired. These cracks continually leak groundwater into the pool cavity. The addition of groundwater into the pool water during the swimming season significantly adds to the amount of chlorination required to keep the pool safe and within operational guidelines for public access pools. The deck that surrounds the pool has sunk and is cracked in several places. This has placed significant pressure on the side walls causing them to bow in towards the pool cavity. The cracks in the deck create dangerous trip hazards and have sent several kids to the local emergency room for cuts and stiches.

At this level of disrepair, patching the existing pool is akin to putting a band aide on a broken bone. We can make it look pretty, but it will still require increasing and considerable maintenance, water and chlorination to keep the current pool safe until we have the funds to build a new pool.

In 2022, the pool had it's 48th and final season. It opened in June, 1974.

• The most important reason to support a new pool in Glasgow is to teach our children and adults swim safety. With so many bodies of water in Valley County, we can’t ignore the importance of learning to swim to keep our residents safe from drowning. The last ten years of swim lesson records show that 5,181 participants have taken part in Red Cross certified swim lessons. Learning to swim is a life skill.

• Health and Wellness opportunities for our residents. Swimming and water aerobics are a low impact exercise for adults. With a proposed zero-depth entry pool, people of all abilities will have greater access to get and keep fit. Young children and teens will also have access to exercise either thru participating in swim team or play during open swim.

• Having a new pool also makes a positive economic impact on our community. The Kiwanis swim team can have swim meets that bring in families from outside the county that will spend money at local businesses, eateries and hotels.

• A vibrant community that have good amenities such as schools, parks, swimming pool, outdoor recreation and theater, can attract professionals to our area to staff our hospital, STAT air planes and our schools.

• Finally, a caring community looks to the future and how we can help the next generation that will live here and call Glasgow and Valley County home. One way to do that is to help make the new pool a reality. It will be a great long-term investment!

When the ground freezes we get what is called Frost heaving (or a frost heave). This is an upwards swelling of soil during freezing conditions caused by an increasing presence of ice as it grows towards the surface, upwards from the depth in the soil where freezing temperatures have penetrated into the soil (the freezing front or freezing boundary). The current pool was drained at the end of the summer of the first year. The heaving pushed the pool up out of the ground and created structural issues. (We have had issues with the pool ever since.) As a way to counteract some of this heaving, it was decided to leave the water in the pool to work as a counterweight. It has helped to eliminate some of this movement of the pool.