Strong finish to the pool season

Despite some early season hang-ups, the Red Oak Municipal Pool had a strong season in 2026.
Red Oak pool manager Georgana Derr said that the pool’s official closure to the season was on Aug 16, roughly two months after the opening.
“As everyone knows, due to a major leak in the pool, we did not get to start on time. We were essentially closed for a month, which is a huge bummer. I hope next year we can do 12 weeks again. It’s hard, though, between pumps, chemicals, potential leaks. Pools are tough, just as the City of Glenwood, as they are still closed. I’m really grateful to everyone who gave their time that first month. The city guys were here a ton, and they  had to stay their other projects,” advised Derr. “It was all hands on deck for a good month. I also want to express my appreciation to the rest of the city for being patient, because while they were fixing that, they were not doing maintenance on other things. It’s hard to decide where you’re going to put your manpower and your money, and I’m thankful that everyone was patient and let them come fix the pool when they did.”
Despite the lengthy closure, Derr said the pool was officially open for 59 days, which still made for a solid pool season.
“Thankfully, when we did finally open, we were very busy. People were very excited and grateful that we were finally open. The start of pool season is my favorite time of the year, so once we got confirmation of what the problem was and when it would be fixed, I felt a great deal of relief, and I also felt like we were really behind,” advised Derr. “We did end up doing two sessions of group swim lessons, but even getting those out was tough and everything was so much later in July. We weren’t used to having to do certain things so late, but still worked out.”
In 2025, the pool had its strongest season since the COVID-19 pandemic. While the loss of a month meant lower numbers this year, Derr was still impressed with the turnout.
“Last year we had about 8,300 visits to the pool. This year, we had more than 3,500 visits from daily entrants and paid patrons. And then we had  around 2,400 visits from pool pass members, so we had around 5,900 visits to the pool this year. I’m striving to get us up to 10,000 visits in a season. Could we have gotten there if we’d been able to open on time this year? It’s possible, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Derr stated.
Because of the long hiatus, there were also concerns that the staff Derr hired for the pool season might have to move on since they couldn’t work at the pool, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
“I didn’t lose any staff. I still had all the staff I had hired back in March, and April. I had a lot of staff that stayed longer this year, too, so that was kind of nice. To help keep them occupied until we opened, we had a few little projects. They put together all those beautiful event gates for the concerts and things, and Lisa Kotter had them out weed eating. We just tried to find some projects they could do while also utilizing the extra help while we had it,” Derr said. “Staffing wise, More than half of my staff were returnees. We did have quite a few new guards, but they did fantastic though. I look forward to having a lot of these people back next year. We partner with the YMCA. They’re the ones that do our training. Aquatics director Stephanie Gillespie is already planning on doing maybe a November class, and then one in December, and then hopefully one in the summer, around May.”
One thing Derr was grateful for was the fact that after the lengthy closure in the beginning, the weather cooperated for the most part.
“We only had two days that we had to close because of the weather. And they were really cold days, you did not want to be there anyway. The first was on the Sunday right after we opened, and then there was one other day more recently,” Derr commented.
With the opening if the pool delayed, Derr said there wasn’t enough time to implement any new features.
“I think basically the theme this year was ‘let’s get open,’ and then people did come. I think the biggest difference from last year was the amount of swim lessons that we taught. We had over 38 sets of private swim lessons. Destiny McAlpin and Jen Wilcoxson did a phenomenal job heading up our lessons, and we did a ton of private lessons. Being able to do two sessions of group lessons was huge,” Derr said.
In 2025, Derr had wanted to bring back twilight swims. While they were able to do a few, Derr said she hopes to do more in 2027.
“We were open a few late nights, but it wasn’t on the regular like I had hoped. Staffing always remains a challenge, and it’s hard, I think, for the kids to work all day in the sun for six hours and then ask them to stay and work and keep the pool open a little bit later,” Derr explained. “Moving forward, it’s something I would like to tackle and change and maybe figure out. To make up for it, we did host a number of free parties that were at night. The City of Red Oak hosted their big free party in the evening, as well as Farmers Mutual Telephone Company of Stanton. We did a few, but it didn’t quite work out like I had hoped.”
While twilight swim didn’t work out as well as intended, Derr said they had some theme weeks that were popular, including Fair Week and Shark Week. Derr hopes to keep building on those events next year. Also, after the initial closure, Derr said things ran smoothly.
“We actually had a really great year in terms of pumps and equipment and chemicals. Things went really smoothly. We didn’t have any incidents, so we didn’t have to close the pool for anything else. Once it got running, we were good. No air bubbles, the mats all stayed down, it was in good shape,” commented Derr.
While usually a staple to close out the pool season, there will be no doggy dip this year.
“Because of our late start, we had the same amount of pool parties after hours, so the last weekend, I had pool parties Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening, and I wasn’t able to schedule a doggie dip it on the last day. Also, our maintenance crew wanted to start immediately working on some things, redoing the floor and taking care of some things that need to be done before the weather turns, so I think we’re going to just do it next year. There were other more pressing issues in terms of maintenance that we wanted to take care of,” Derr stated.
Derr added she really grateful to her staff and to our assistant managers., and speculated on what kept them coming back year after year.
“It’s the easiest, funnest, best job you’ll ever have. We now also have a lot of adults that are returning to this job. People that might have lifeguarded when they were in theor teens, and now they’re teachers, or they have availability in their schedule in the summer, and they’ve come back to lifeguard as well, which is really fun,” commented Derr. “It’s a place you get to hang out and get a tan. We try to treat them really well. I had posted once that our lifeguards love cupcakes, and someone brought cupcakes. The managers, we buy lots of ice cream and popsicles and pizza, and we just try to treat our staff really well and let them know that they’re appreciated.”
Also, Derr said she herself being in the pool manager position was helpful, as it provided familiarity and stability. It’s a role Derr said she takes on all year.
“A lot of my job is year-round. With these lifeguard classes coming up, I’m getting kids in class at the right time, and then getting them recertified at the right time, and helping them to remember they need to go get their recertification, because this is a job where I just can’t hire people off the street. You have to be certified. Part of my job in the wintertime is making sure everyone’s in the class they need to be in, and then also getting them excited for the season,” Derr said. “It’s a lot of hard work during the year to keep them interested and to make them excited about coming back, and we recruit out of Red Oak and Stanton, I talk to kids here that are working, and I want them to work with their friends, and I want them to feel like they’re a part of something. So it’s really exciting. I love having our staff come back every year, and it’s nice to have a full staff because our pool requires so many lifeguards at one time due to the shape of the pool and the features that we have.”
Derr commented on some of the highlights she enjoyed during this year’s most recent pool season.
“I really enjoyed the parties that we were able to offer to the community for free. The day before the official opening, we had a preview night and a sneak peek it was free, and we enjoyed giving that experience to the community,” commented Derr.
Also this year, many of the pool patrons were not only from out of town, they were from overseas.  
“It was great to see people from other countries visit. We had people all the way from France, Sweden and Germany. They were visiting family locally and their family brought them to the pool. On the weekends, we always get visitors from the city. Omaha, Papillion, Bellevue. People will drive over here on the weekends because our facility is so nice and it’s not as crowded. The people that visited from Germany really liked our climbing wall, and they said they didn’t have anything like it at the pools in Germany” advised Derr.
Derr said the feedback from this year is that everyone loves the pool, but isn’t a fan of the bathhouse. Derr said the goal is to get the bathhouse updated as soon as possible. The hours were also praised and Derr said they even had the chance to get a few extra events in before openings. .
“We had a lot more people this year for lap swim, which I thought was fantastic. So people could come during their lunch hour just before the pool opens every day from noon to 1. We made it very affordable, and they would swim laps. We still did toddler time on Tuesdays, and as always, that was fun. It’s a little quieter, only the shallow parts open, and we held it from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., again before the regular pool hours.”
While initially there had been talk of extending the pool season because of the lost month, Derr said they ended up closing around the same time .
We always end a week before school starts and the Iowa State Fair. All of the college people leave, the teachers go back to school. the kids are in band camp, and football and cross country have started by now, so with all those things to consider, it’s almost impossible to stay open very much later. It gives everyone a chance to do what they need to do to get ready, and then they go,” advised Derr.
Derr issued a final comment for those that once again turned out to make the pool season a success.
“I appreciate all of you coming. I am of course sorry we were late, but we had a lot of fun once we got going. It was a great summer, and we look forward to reopening in 2027 in late may or early June. I encourage everyone to stay tuned,” Derr commented.