Community bands together to fix Silver Lake pool after old surface cuts kids' feet
SILVER LAKE, Minn. -- Fire trucks from several communities joined forces Tuesday to help get a community pool back open.
The pool in Silver Lake was forced, last week, to close due to recurring issues with swimmers getting their feet cut on the bottom surface. The city says the 18-year-old surface only had a 15-year life but didn't present any issues until this summer.
"When we cleaned the pool this spring, you know, we weren't walking around in there barefooted," Dale Kosek, with Silver Lake Public Works, said. "We couldn't tell by looking at it. It's fine. But you get the little guys in there and they're in there two, three hours, skin starts to get soft and it was starting to irritate them."
The pool tried to fix the issue by requiring swimmers to wear shoes, but the Minnesota Department of Health stepped in.
Community members joined forces over the weekend to resurface the pool floor.
"Me being a professional tile contractor, I understand how to get surfaces smooth. I've got all the equipment with my business on sanding equipment of concrete surfaces. So I was able to take my skill set and apply it to the pool. I just needed able bodies to help doing it," Brent Posusta said.
With the smoothing work done, fire trucks from around Silver Lake came in to refill the pool and prepare it to reopen, although officials recognize this is a "Band-Aid" fix.
That fresh water now has to be chemically treated with chlorine before the pool can reopen.
The city hopes it will be ready to reopen on Friday.
