The Jayman Built Aquatic Centre is gearing up for a big splash on Saturday (August 18).

Celebrating its one-year anniversary, community members are invited to drop in for a swim, games, and activities as part of their FREE Summer Pool Party.

Ben Marasco, Manager of Aquatics shares while the aquatics team is still critiquing and fine-tuning programs, he feels the pool has been an incredibly well-received addition to our growing town. "Without a doubt, we have seen the community embrace the aquatic centre. The use has really grown and we have seen different types of people coming through and we only know it's going to grow from here."

With approximately 160,000 people accessing the pool in its first year of operations, Marasco shares residents will see some improvements made in the near future. The Jayman Built Aquatic Centre will be closed to the public beginning September 4th through to the morning of September 24th for a mechanical shutdown. "There are a couple things we have identified that we'll be looking at. It will be a really great time for our safety and supervision side of the aquatics team to go back and look over some of our rules, policies, operating procedures and how things are done; I think come October, people will see some real changes."

The pool closure is not an unusual occurrence as aquatic centres generally shut down for a couple weeks to address issues. With this being the first year of operations, Marasco says they will fix deficiencies, like the peeling paint in the change rooms at the same time. "Anything under our one year warranty are things that are going to be looked at, repaired and topped up at that time."

One of the biggest changes or improvements coming this fall surrounds the issue of accessibility. "One of the things people will really notice is on Saturday and Sunday mornings as well as our weeknight lessons Monday to Thursday, in the past, the pool has been closed during lessons and come the fall it will actually be open. So if you have one kid in swim lessons at 5 and another one at 5:30, you could swim with one while the other one is swimming or just come all together and swim at that time. So you're not going to see those blackout times like you did last year."

Listening to user feedback and making improvements where they can, is a top priority for the aquatics staff. "We want to do our best to meet the community's needs in regards to what types of programs they are looking for and what kind of use they are looking for."

To celebrate the success of its first year, Marasco is encouraging everyone to grab their suit and towel and join the Summer Pool Party fun they have planned. Although the event is free to attend, the staff is hoping attendees can bring along a non-perishable food donation to help top up the shelves of the Cochrane Food Bank.

The Summer Pool Party will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and Jayman homeowners can enjoy an extra half hour of swim time beginning at 12:30 p.m.