The Crookston Pool reopened following the shutdown for COVID-19 in late July and, more recently, was able to add back some of it’s programming such as swim lessons. One round of swim lessons is just wrapping up, and the pool has another scheduled to start at the end of October.
Pool Manager Cody Brekken said the pool is trying to schedule more lessons to make up for being closed most of the spring and summer. “This is our last week here for some early fall swim lessons,” said Brekken. “We have a lot of makeup to do from being closed most of the summer, so that’s the audience we’re trying to serve. We’ll have another session that starts at the end of the month. Registration should open up later this week. We’ll do the same (schedule), Mondays, and Wednesdays from 6:15-7 p.m. starting October 26 and running for four weeks.”
Swim lessons will also be offered more frequently because not only is the pool trying to make up for its time closed, they also have limited capacity due to COVID-19. “Can’t have the class sizes like we have during typical times, but we’ll keep filling these up and do them more often as fall turns into winter,” said Brekken. “Also, we’re excited to announce we’ll do the Wellness Swim program again this year starting November 2. We’ll have Wellness Swimming Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays through the end of April. Christmas week we’ll be off, Thanksgiving Thursday, we’ll be off and a couple of days like that. Both of those, swim lessons and wellness, you can register for on the Park & Recreation website. Otherwise, if you have any questions on that, you can call City Hall to talk to Andrea in Park and Rec or email me at cbrekken@crookston.mn.us.”
The Wellness Swimming program will run Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. In addition to reduced class sizes for swim lessons, some other changes in the pool operations remain in place as a result of COVID-19 guidelines said, Brekken. “You’ll get your temperature changed before entering the pool and wear a mask into the building before you enter the pool area,” said Brekken. “Our lockers are open, but we just have different protocols. You’ll see every locker door is open when you come. We ask that you put your gear in the locker, and you can shut it. But when you leave the building, we ask that you shut the locker, so we know which lockers have been used. We sanitize those twice a day, throughout the day.”
For those unfamiliar with Wellness Swimming, Brekken said it’s an intermediate program intended to help those that have passed the Red Cross Swim Lesson program become stronger swimmers while also having some fun in the pool. “If we’ve got swimmers that are very active and doing quite a bit, you can probably finish our normal Red Cross Swim program at 9-11 years old,” said Brekken. “It’s kind of that intermediate, wrapping up swim lessons, but it’s something extra to keep them busy. They’ll get that endurance in swimming as well as a fun activity to keep your kids busy. They’ll play different games in the water and work specifically on each stroke to build their strength in swimming. That goes up to 18 years old, so, once they are a strong enough swimmer to pass the swim test, they can join wellness until 18.”
The pool also offered a Baby & Me class for the first time for infants and their parents. Brekken said he plans to schedule another Baby & Me program soon as well. “We’ve had seven families come consistently to our first session, and I’ve got one more week for those,” said Brekken. “We haven’t scheduled another session of that yet, but I plan on doing the same thing. That will probably stick to the ones that are home with kids. I’d like to have it later in the day for the parents at work too, but with me being the only instructor for that, I’ll probably stick to the 10:30 a.m. time. Look at the Crookston Pool Facebook page or the Park & Rec Facebook page for more updates on that.”
Upcoming Pool Schedule:
Lap Swim – Monday-Friday 6-9 a.m.
Aqua Exercise – Monday-Friday 9-10 a.m.
Baby & Me – TBD
Wellness Swimming – Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday 3:30-5 p.m. beginning November 2
Swim Lessons – 6:15-7 p.m. beginning October 26
Open Swim – Monday-Friday 6-8 p.m. & Saturday noon-3 p.m.
Adult Swim – Tuesday & Thursday 8-9 p.m. with aqua exercise option and lap swim
