New $4.7 million Cameron Aquatic Center set to open this next Saturday

Contractors put the final touches on the $4.7 million Cameron Aquatic Center with officials still onto next Saturday's soft opening.

Although welcoming patrons for the first time since the pool closed in 2020, work will still progress throughout the summer with plans to repave the parking lot, install swimsuit dryers, relocate the dumpster from the parking lot to the pump house, painting the pump house and roofing the newly renovated pool house.

“Everything is going as expected. Everything is on track to finish on time … Everything is moving right along,” Cameron Parks Supervisor Steve Garr said. “The only snag, and it shouldn’t change opening the pool. We’re waiting on roofing materials. Once they’re in, we can get it turned around pretty quick. [Lamp-Rynearson, the group overseeing construction] isn’t acting like it’s going to be an issue, even if the pool is open. They didn’t act like it would change our plans as far as opening dates or closing.”

The Cameron Aquatic Center replaces the Cameron Municipal Pool, which originally opened in 1982. After nearly 40 years of operation, Garr said the leaks cost Cameron taxpayers more than $25,000 a year due to the pool draining hundreds of gallons into the ground each day. In 2020, Cameron voters approved a 25-year, $16 million 1/4-cent sales tax, paving the way for the new pool and Cameron Community Park, which Garr expects to open next spring. Last summer, contractors overhauled the pool house, pump house and reduced the 39-year-old pool to rubble.

Editor's note: A previous article, printed Wednesday morning indicated the new Cameron Aquatic Center would open this Saturday. Thursday morning park officials announced a week delay in the pool's opening due to ongoing construction.