Waverly’s nearly $6 million aquatic center now open, replacing pool from 70s

WAVERLY, Neb. (KLKN) – Waverly had been using the same city pool since the 1970s — until Tuesday.

The city’s new aquatic center held its grand opening on the Fourth of July.

Its features include a lazy river, zero-entry pools and multiple slides.

The chipping paint and garden hoses of the old pool have been replaced by this nearly $6 million facility.

“That pool is just falling apart, all the time something was broken,” lifeguard Anna Mollo said. “And this pool, we hardly have to do any maintenance on it. Just getting things up and running is super smooth and easy.”

With a new facility comes new staff, including lifeguards.

And Waverly had no problems there. In fact, they had too many apply for the job, turning some away.

“To see how many people actually want to come and lifeguard, it means a lot.” Mollo said. “We can take time off and go spend time with our friends and do all sorts of fun things. So it means a lot that we have a lot of guards who would want to work.”

Waverly is including everyone with all this new pool has to offer.

A chairlift and the zero-entry pools were a part of those plans.

“Our old pool had a very small demographic,” said Abbey Pascoe, president of the city council and the Greater Waverly Area Foundation Fund. “One of the things that we really want to do with this new pool is make sure it touches every ability. Our community is growing.”

Prices were grandfathered in from the old pool this year, as the aquatic center opened in the middle of the season.

Next year, prices are expected to go up.

And families and kids aren’t the only ones dipping into this pool.

Waverly’s recreational swim team has also enjoyed having a pool that better simulates competitions.

“It’s great to see them have actual lanes and feel like a competitive swimming pool,” swim team mom Tammi Peterman said. “My girls swim competitively during the offseason here, so it’s great to have this same kind of feel that we have in our club pool as we do now in our rec pool.”

A chili cookoff, disc golf tournament and other fundraisers all have culminated in this new aquatic center — now open to the public.