Although the season won't end officially until Monday, it appears business at the Lawrence Aquatic Center was a little slower this summer than it was last year, city officials said this week.
Cool temperatures in May and frequent thunderstorms in early June combined to get the pool off to a slow start this year, said Ernie Shaw, facilities and maintenance superintendent for the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
For the entire 1998 season, Shaw said, the pool registered total attendance of 164,688. Preliminary figures for this year show attendance through Aug. 17 at 131,808.
Shaw said final figures for this year won't be available until sometime after the last day of the season on Monday.
"It looks like we were down a little in May and June," Shaw said. "That's when we had a lot of rain and cool weather. There were several days when we were closed because of thunderstorms or it was just very cool."
Shaw said figures through the end of June showed attendance at about 48,000 this year, compared with 64,500 through the same period last year.
Shaw said business improved as the summer moved along, especially in July, when a heat wave kept temperatures over the 100-degree mark for about three weeks. He said about 63,000 people visited the pool in July this year, compared with 48,000 in July 1998.
Although the city has experimented with keeping the pool open beyond Labor Day in other years in hopes of boosting attendance, Shaw said officials decided last year that it simply wasn't worthwhile.
"It just wasn't profitable," he said. "There were not enough people using the pool after Labor Day, and it was difficult to get staff because we have to operate with a part-time staff, most of whom are students, and it's just hard to get them to work after school starts back up."
-- Peter Hancock's phone message number is 832-7144. His e-mail address is phancock@ljworld.com.
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