Get the floaties. The Franklin Pool is fixing to close for the year.
To celebrate the conclusion of the pool’s opening for this year, the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring the third annual Big Splash Event on Sunday, Sept. 4, from 1 to 5 p.m. The weekend event is open and free to the public.
“This is the third year we’ve done this,” said David Nanney, the department’s recreation manager. “There’s free admission and we’ll have all kinds of things available, including inflatables and music. It is a perfect way for people to stop by and see what the pool has to offer for one more weekend.”
Franklin Pool, nestled inside the Joe LaPorte, Jr. Recreation Area adjacent to Sycamore Shoals State Park, will close for the year on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 5.
“This event really coincides with our Tweetsie Trail Celebration,” the manager added. “We’ve just done it a couple of years beforehand so it has been here a little bit longer.”
Each year, Franklin Pool opens during the month of May to the delight of swimmers, as Nanney noted the amount of traffic the pool receives each year.
“Oh, it is quite a few,” he added with a laugh. “During the month of August, as kids are going back to school, we just open up during the weekend. But before school gets back into session, we see several groups stop by to use the pool. I’d say roughly there’s about 400 kids in about two different group sessions we see on a day-to-day basis through the summer. The weekends are usually for family days but it is easy to say that we see over thousands come in each year. It is always great to see the support the pool has from people from the area, and those that stop in each year.”
Franklin Pool will be expecting a new addition, tentatively, for 2017 following the announcement that the area received grant funding from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to install a splash pad at the pool.
“It’s very exciting,” Nanney said about the upcoming splash pad. “We’re going to eliminate the baby pool. The addition of a splash pad suits all ages and will help cut the cost of maintenance and be a great addition for the area.”
Elizabethton received a 50/50 matching grant worth $100,000 a month ago to begin the work on a splash pad as part of $17 million worth of grants unraveled in an announcement issued by the state.
“We appreciate the consideration by Gov. Bill Haslam and TDEC for allowing us to receive this opportunity,” Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Director Mike Mains recently told the Elizabethton Star.
The LPRF grant has been given the green light, according to Nanney, and work is projected to get underway in the coming months.
“As of right now, our plan is to have the splash pad ready to go when we open up in 2017,” he said.