Pool at Modesto Red Shield Center to open next month

In a little more than three weeks, the swimming pool at The Salvation Army Red Shield Center in Modesto will be ready to give kids relief from the summer heat that’s on its way.

As workers with Burkett’s Pool Plastering on Thursday did the plumbing and drainage that will lie beneath the pool’s new deck, they were fortunate to labor in temperatures that rose only to about 80 degrees. But in the six weeks they’ve been at the Red Shield, there certainly have been some hot days, and children who look forward to the pool in the summertime soon will literally be sweating the days until it reopens.

“A lot of these kids are here every day and see the progress like I do,” said Lt. Quinton Markham, Salvation Army corps officer at the center, as he stood poolside Thursday. “They’re looking forward to the changes not only with the pool” but the remodeling of locker rooms and restrooms and other improvements being made at the center.

Everything will be new at the 3,578-square-foot pool except the shell, said Rob Burkett, owner of the plastering company. “New deck, fencing, we’re adding a slide. New drainage, new lighting. ... The pump’s in good shape, but we’re adding some stuff for energy efficiency. We’re replastering, retiling, recoping.”

Structurally, the work should extend the life of the pool 30 years, Burkett said. The plaster has about a 15-year life span, he said.

Last June, Stanislaus County Environmental Resources ordered the Red Shield Center to close the pool for a few days to do some plaster work immediately needed, Markham said. The work being done now – at a cost of about $150,000 – was required before the pool could open this season.

Other amenities The Salvation Army wants to add take the price tag up to $235,000. Those include the water slide, lane ropes and water polo and volleyball equipment. The coolest addition would be an AquaClimb wall, which attaches to a side of the pool and lets kids climb up on a slight curve and drop into the water.

A benefit basketball game organized by Rep. Jeff Denham in April raised more than $35,000 to help restore the 46-year-old pool. Other community response to the financial need has been strong, Markham said, including several corporate donations. The board of Save Mart Supermarkets agreed to pay for the water slide in memory of its chairman, Robert Piccinini, who died in March 2015.

County code does not allow for the climbing wall the Red Shield would like to add to the pool. Markham said he spoke Wednesday with Environmental Resources staff and is hopeful. “I look at it as code has not caught up to what we want to do here,” he said. The Salvation Army is “looking at options to see if an exception can be made or a change in code could be influenced,” he said. “A climbing wall definitely is something we would love to add to make the pool more attractive to young people.”

Burkett said his company will be done with the pool by July 8. Markham said the Red Shield plans to have a reopening ceremony and likely will have kids splashing around by July 9 or 11.

The Salvation Army wants to get even more use out of its renovated pool. Last summer, the pool was open until the end of August, Markham said, but recognizing that hot days sometimes arrive as early as April and last into October, he envisions a six- or seven-month season. Open swim has been limited to weekdays, but the army is looking into expanding into Saturdays and down the line possibly Sundays.

“We’re contemplating those kinds of changes,” Markham said. “We’re hoping we can get into operations like renting for corporation events, anniversary parties, birthday parties, generate some income from that. Swim team use. I know in past there has been search-and-rescue water training. We’d love to open our facility to those types of groups.

“We’re talking about aquatic fitness classes, which which we actually did last summer. We want to continue that. We’re talking about swim lessons. We want to get kids here so they learn how to swim.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2016 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Pool at Modesto Red Shield Center to open next month."