The Crookston Park and Rec Department met on Monday afternoon and discussed the pool and winter activity numbers.
POOL CLOSURE OVER HOLIDAYS-
The Crookston Community Pool will be closed from 3:30 p.m. on December 24 to January 4 due to cleaning and maintenance work. The work was spurred by a shortage of lifeguards over the break as five of the seven lifeguards out of town during that time. “We have three UMC lifeguards who are leaving for Christmas break, and we have two of our regular lifeguards who have to take their 30 days off for para,” said Crookston Park and Rec Director Scott Butt. “We have another lifeguard who is in a winter activity, so that person will be gone a lot.”
Butt said they will drain the pool, fix the lighting, seal the lights, clean the pool, and perform a full deep clean of the entire facility. “Let’s get the bottom of the pool clean and let’s get the gutters cleaned and polished and try being useful with our time,” said Butt. “We’ve got some lights that have fallen out of the pool because the bolts have rusted out. So, we will install new bolts in the lights and reattach them to the wall, and then see what we can do to secure them. Let’s get the bottom of the pool clean, and get the gutters cleaned and polished.”
When you drain hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and refill the pool, the process is a time-consuming project. “When you’re dealing with between 400,000 and 600,000 gallons of water, it’s going to take some time,” said Butt. “After the pool is drained, we’ll start working the day after Christmas, and then we’ll work right up to New Year’s Eve. And start filling, um, before New Year’s and get the chemical and everything balanced with an open date of January 5 when we’ll have all our lifeguards back, and we’ll be able to run efficiently again.”
WINTER ACTIVITY NUMBERS REPORT
Butt and Andrea Prudhomme said the winter activity numbers are good and similar to last year. The 2025-26 numbers are below-
Figure Skating – 122 registrations (not kids in figure skating, as a lot of the skaters are registered for 2 or 3 classes). We hope to have the number of kids on Tuesday.
Hockey – 142
Learn to Skate – 50
Wrestling – 22
Mites – 4 teams (the most they have had in a long time)
Women’s Volleyball – 19
Men’s Hockey – 4 teams
Swimming Wellness – October 18
Swimming Wellness – November 33
Swimming Wellness – December 5
Swimming Lessons – October 32
Swimming Lessons – November 33
“We have decent numbers. You know, one of the things that really stood out in my mind is the fact that we have four might hockey teams. I’m trying to remember in my 14 and a half years, how many times we’ve had four might teams and I’m pretty excited about those numbers,” said Butt. “Our actual figure skating numbers, when I looked at them the other day, we were actually ahead of what we were a year ago. I really like how our numbers are going for the winter, and we want to increase them every year if we can.”
The next Park Board meeting will be held on January 12 at 4:30 p.m. at the City Hall conference room.