Those who want a convenient place to cool off this summer will be happy with the recent decision of the McMinnville Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Fees at the Gilley Pool will remain the same this season after interim Parks and Recreation director Greg Wanamaker presented his pricing proposal to the full board.
“I propose we keep the same prices,” said Wanamaker. “Our revenues were pretty good last year. We had the same prices as the year before. We did raise our prices for a couple of years and our revenues went down. So unless you see a reason to raise those prices, I’d like to keep them the same.”
The board agreed and the fees will be:

• Daily admission — $4
• Season passes — $225 family, and $85 individual
• Private party — $450 for two hours
City administrator David Rutherford did have some suggestions about the schedule once school was back in session.
“When school goes back, our attendance drops way off,” said Rutherford. “Last year we tried Monday through Thursday from 3 to 8 p.m.”
“And we had the 9 to 11 a.m. water aerobics in that two-hour slot there,” said Wanamaker. “Then we came back 3 to 8.”
“We had pretty good participation in the water aerobics,” said Rutherford. “But pretty bad participation in the after-school program. There were days I was over there and we had more lifeguards than we had swimmers.”
Rutherford then brought up a grant designed to help involve youth in physical activity on a regular basis.
“It’s not been finalized yet but I’ll go ahead and give you a head’s up on it,” said Rutherford. “We have received a $10,000 grant from the National Recreation and Park Association. It’s an special purpose grant. It’s a program to work with identified youth. It’s a class that’s for swimming and also for teaching health and nutrition. These would go together.”
Rutherford said the city was already in the process of working with a local school close to the pool.
“What we’re trying to do is work with West Elementary with their fifth grade class, and then working with the school system,” Rutherford said. “And it looks like that may work out. That’s about 120 kids that we’re going to try to run through the program for about a 30-day period. That’s from the time school starts to right about Labor Day. That would be the time frame.”
Rutherford said there were some requirements to be met.
“The NRPA grant only has about a 30-day window that you can do something like that, because they’d like to see some results and see if you can at least have an organized program with some benefits,” said Rutherford. “Not only for free play, but actually doing some instruction not only in swimming, but also for health, fitness and nutrition. It looks like that is going to go forward.
“So we’re probably looking at hours of operation that might go a week after Labor Day,” Rutherford said.
“We’re working with West Elementary’s PE teachers,” Wanamaker said. “And thinking they’re going to need maybe 9 a.m. to noon each day Monday through Friday.”
Wanamaker said the pool will still be open on weekends after school is back in session from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
“We’re also proposing to open the same weekend this year, May 26,” said Wanamaker. “It’s a Saturday and our traditional starting time, and then go through Labor Day.”
Labor day this year falls on Sept. 3.