Hours may be limited

The water park will open on Memorial Day weekend.

What the hours will be and when weekday hours will begin remains up in the air.

Portland Park Board on Tuesday confirmed that Portland Water Park will be ready to open May 29, but staffing shortages forced other details about the coming season to be left unanswered.

The board also discussed the ongoing process of developing the next five-year park plan and gave the OK for an aspiring Eagle Scout to add a feature at Hudson Family Park.

Portland Water Park manager Missy Bader reported at Tuesday’s meeting that she has seven returning full-time lifeguards and two or three part-time. Seven potential new lifeguards have applied and started the training process.

Even if all seven are added, though, it will still leave the staff well below the 25-plus lifeguards the facility had during the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season. If that is the case, hours may need to be reduced and rentals may not be possible.

“We can’t be open all those hours with what I have right now,” said Bader, noting that other pools in the area are facing similar issues. “People are just going to have to be flexible.”

The facility’s schedule for the year is also complicated by the fact that Jay Schools will be in session through June 11 because the start of the school year was delayed in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The board agreed to have the pool open Memorial Day weekend (May 29 through 31) and then revisit the schedule at its June 1 meeting.

Board members again discussed the 2022-2026 five-year park plan, which needs to be complete by the end of the year.

Goals of the plan — including increasing public awareness, promoting programs and identifying priorities — will likely remain much the same as in the current plan. Rural Portland resident John Moore, who is helping develop the plan, said goals will also be shaped by the public’s responses to an upcoming survey.

The board discussed questions for that survey. Some potential questions include:

•What do you usually do at the park?

•What parks do you visit?

•Do you participate in park activities?

•What would you like to see added to the parks?

The board’s timeline calls for the survey to be launched in June. Information about the survey will be distributed with water bills, posted on the city’s website and announced via local media.

Board members Giles Laux, Brian Ison, Chris Compton, Glen Bryant and Shawna Runkle also approved Ares Hambrock’s request to install a bicycle repair station in Hudson Family Park.

Hambrock, 14, of Boy Scout Troop 206 of Portland, said he came up with the idea to install the repair station while seeing the equipment on a trip in Michigan. The stations provide equipment to fill tires, repair chains and handle other bicycle maintenance.

The new equipment will come at no cost to the city — Hambrock will raise funds and handle the installation — and street and parks department staff will help select the location.

Matt Shauver of the city’s parks department also noted that vandalism continues to be a problem at the parks, especially Hudson Family Park. For that reason, the restrooms at the park amphitheater will be closed except during scheduled events. Some of the vandalism has been caught on video, and Shauver said violators will be prosecuted.

He asked for the public’s help in preventing vandalism.

“If the public’s there, just call,” said Shauver. “Call the police and maybe that will stop this stuff.”

Shauver also reported the following: work has begun on new roofs on shelter houses at Haynes, Portland Memorial and Milton Miller parks; new shuffleboard stencils are in and work will begin on the courts at Portland Memorial Park as weather allows; tennis courts have been removed from Milton Miller Park and the area will be filled and seeded in the coming months; a group of local residents raised money and purchased break-away rims to be installed at the basketball court at Weiler-Wilson Park.