Two Rivers community pool will close after 60 years

TWO RIVERS, Wis. (WBAY) - Generations of local kids know how to swim, thanks to the Two Rivers Family Swim Center.

“I learned to swim here,” said lifelong Two Rivers resident Amber Gates. Now, her 5-year-old son is learning to swim at the very same place.

“It’s where I learned to swim, I took lessons with my children,” said Barb Schweitzer, a volunteer at the Two Rivers Family Swim Center who has been swimming at the pool for 37 years.

But the number of memories made there may have reached its capacity.

The almost 60-year-old pool is closing its doors.

“It’s like grieving a loss,” Schweitzer said.

The volunteer Board of Directors decided it can’t afford to keep the pool open any longer.

For some, the closing is about more than the loss of a pool.

“Honestly, heartbreaking,” Gates said.

“My city never had a pool, so for me, it changed my life and I’m sure it changed a lot of other peoples.” Schweitzer said. She learned to swim as an adult and went on to coach swimming for more than two decades.

Without the neighborhood pool, there are concerns about where kids will learn to swim in Two Rivers.

“All kids living in this city need to know how to swim, you’re surrounded by water,” Schweitzer said.

“We did teach over 200 kids this summer so that is a huge factor and people are constantly looking for swim lessons,” Gates said.

Volunteers estimate it currently costs about $80,000 to keep the community pool running each year.

“The pool is from 1965. The filters we can’t get parts for anymore, the motors are going, the heaters are going,” Schweitzer said.

A group of Two Rivers residents are asking city leaders to help fund the construction of a new pool at the Sept. 18 city council meeting.

“Basically, what we’re asking of the city is ‘help, we need help.’ We want to work with the city, we want to partner with them,” Gates said.

“We have never had city support, we would like that,” Schweitzer said.

The Two Rivers Family Swim Center will permanently close its doors on Monday.

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