"I've been going down the slides. It's really fun," said Preston Reynolds of Madera Ranchos. His family came to the Central Unified Aquatics Complex in west central Fresno to get some relief from the heat. "We don't have a swimming pool so we wanted to get in the water and have some fun," said Shelley Reynolds.
The complex opened its pool to the community last week and families have been taking advantage of the early season. "More people will come as it gets a little warmer. Central Unified is out of school. Fresno Unified will be released from school next week and as that happens, we have a lot of people here in the late afternoon and evening when it's the hottest," said Rick Klatt, Central Unified's Aquatics director.
On the other side of town, the Airways city pool in east central Fresno is much quieter. Crews have begun to fill up the pool set to open Monday, June 18th.
"There are a number of communities or neighborhoods that do not have access to swimming pools so this was a priority for the mayor to try to find the resources to allow us to keep those pools open," said Bruce Rudd, assistant city manager.
Airways will be just one of 4 full-size city pools opening this summer because of financial constraints. The operational costs for all four exceed $100,000. "Given our budget limitations, we'd like to open all of our pools but that's just not in the cards right now. At the minimum we can offer up and provide the same level of service we provided last year," said Rudd.
For now, the kids at Central Unified get an early start to summer. "We love to come here. It's clean. It's a very safe environment for [my] girls," said Alicia Valdez of Fresno.
It's $6 to enter the water park at the Aquatics Complex.
The Fresno city pools will charge $1 for kids and $2 for adults. An entrance fee is waived when temperatures reach above 105 degrees.
