City pool will be open this summer

SIKESTON -- Sikeston will have a public pool this summer.

Jiggs Moore, parks division director, reported on the Jaycee Municipal Pool during a special budget preparation meeting Tuesday. "We filled the pool up," Moore said. "We needed to have it running to see what would happen."

Water was in the pool for a little over a week "and it doesn't appear to be losing anything," he said.

Moore said it is possible that a drain valve was not being completely closed, leading officials to believe the pool was leaking. He said the valve gets used frequently as part of day-to-day operations.

"At this point, we're going to proceed with getting it ready to open," he said. "If things don't change, we should get through one more season."

When contacted later about staffing, Jeff Partridge, executive director of the YMCA of Southeast Missouri, said he believes he we still be able to get the required staff to operate the pool this year.

"We notified them a week or so ago that we were kind of waiting a little bit longer to see what the city could find out about the pool," Partridge said. "So we're good to go."