City officials are eyeing May 27 -- Memorial Day weekend -- as the opening date of the city swimming pool located at Carnes Park.
"We are posting the jobs for the lifeguards this week," said Mayor Charlotte Young.
In previously years, the pool had been plagued by pumping issues, forcing the closure of the pool in June of 2022.
Kevin Franklin, director of public works, said that this year, the pool looks good.
"We've already turned the pumps on and checked them... Okay, so that's ran fine," he said. "We just did a little quick run through to see what would happen and everything worked fine. So during this time, I just scheduled a little drainage to do a little power washing, get everything together and be ready to roll."
A 1954 issue of the Camden News states, "Construction on the new City Swimming Pool at Carnes Park is progressing exceptionally well despite bad weather, according to pool officials. Present plans are for the pool to be completed by the end of June."
The article goes on to describe the pool as 185 by 75 foot, ranging in depth from 5 to 11 feet, able to accommodate up to 500 swimmers and 666,486 gallons of water
"The pool will be an Olympic 50 meter AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) swimming pool and will meet the requirements of the State Board of Health. A number of health and safety precautions will be taken. Water in the pool will be completely changed every 8 hours and will be constantly flowing out, carried by pipes through filters, purifying it, and back again into the pool. These filters will treat the water with the specified amount of chlorine for health purposes. Two lifeguards will be on duty at all times when the pool is open and it will be well lighted for night swimming," the article continues.
"Fresh water will be continuously flowing into this pool. Depth of the wading pool is two feet to two feet six inches. The wading pool will not be enclosed in the steel fence which encloses the main pool. The present wading pool at the park will be done away with," the article concludes.