Everything was nearly ready for the big splash at Rosedale Community Pool last year when the unthinkable happened.
The Sunday before opening day at the neighborhood-owned pool, board members Kelli Owen and Mary Myers were busy cleaning mats — one of the last chores before the pool was to open on Memorial Day weekend.
That opening never took place.
About 5:20 p.m. that day — May 22 — the wind came up and rain started falling on Owen and Myers as they worked.
“We said, ‘We probably need to be heading home,’” Owen recounted. “We got home just in time.”
She made it to a friend’s basement right before the EF-5 tornado hit.
Myers made it home, too, and huddled in a closet while the grinding winds damaged her house near 26th Street and Kansas Avenue.
It would be several days before Rosedale board members could take a break from helping relatives and friends to check on the pool at 2320 E. 24th St.
“We knew it was in the path,” Owen said.
The twister took the tops off the concession stand and equipment shed, twisted the pump off its foundation, and damaged the pool surface. Pretty much everything was a wreck. Last summer was the first year that the Rosedale pool was not open since it was built in 1969, Owen said.
“Luckily, we were insured,” she added.
Thanks to that insurance settlement and an additional $50 assessment from its members, Rosedale is getting ready to reopen.
“It’s like a brand-new pool” this year, Owen said.
The pool has a new slide; it had been missing a slide for years, Owen said. The high dive had been taken out years ago, but now a new low dive is being installed.
It’s on target for a planned opening on Saturday, May 26.
Joplin pools
So are Joplin’s city pools.
Construction crews are making headway on $600,000 worth of repairs that had to be done to the Cunningham Park pool, near 26th Street and Maiden Lane.
Two new slides, donated to Joplin by the city of Fort Scott, Kan., have been installed, and the pool is being resurfaced. Electrical and plumbing repairs are under way, and the bathhouse is getting a makeover.
“We still have one more feature to come” for the pool, Joplin Parks and Recreation Director Chris Cotten said Tuesday. “There was a play feature that was destroyed in the tornado, and we’re coming back with more things.” Those features are a toddler slide, water cannons, cargo nets for climbing and other activities.
“It will be a lot more entertaining for kids than what was there before,” Cotten said.
The plan is for the Cunningham pool to be ready by the city’s traditional opening date, which is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.
“We still have a ways to go,” Cotten said. “It will come right down to the week of Memorial Day to get everything done. There is a lot of damage out there, a lot of things to repair.”
SCHIFFERDECKER
While Rosedale and Cunningham will have their first seasons as repaired and updated pools, it is to be the last one for the existing pool in Schifferdecker Park.
The City Council at its April 16 meeting authorized plans to build a $5.8 million swim center at Schifferdecker.
Jeff Bartley, an engineer with Water’s Edge Aquatic Design in Lenexa, Kan., outlined a proposal to build a pool suitable for competition swimming, plus a splash pad and recreational pool with zero-depth entry and a lazy river to replace the current pool and diving area.
Bartley said reusing the Schifferdecker site instead of building elsewhere would save about $500,000 because the current bathhouse and infrastructure could be used.
Cotten said that if the planning proceeds smoothly, demolition of the Schifferdecker pool would start as soon as the swim season ends.
Bartley said Tuesday by telephone that the new swim center would be roughly 50 percent larger than the existing Schifferdecker pool.
Public or private, a measure of recovery from Joplin’s disaster is a mark to be celebrated, Owen said.
“We’re anxious” to reopen and see families return for summer fun and relaxation, she said. “We’re going to have a ‘beginning of summer’ bash.”
Pool details
THE ROSEDALE COMMUNITY POOL will open Saturday, May 26.
HOURS WILL BE noon to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 1 to 8 p.m. Sundays.
NEW MEMBERSHIPS are $245 for dues, plus a $75 application fee.
SWIM LESSONS will be available in June. Pool parties are $40 for up to 20 people.
MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION may be obtained by calling 417-623-9345 or viewing www.rosedalepool.net. The pool accommodates 200 families, and there are openings on the membership roll, according to association treasurer Kelli Owen.
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JOPLIN CITY POOLS will open Saturday, May 26.
HOURS WILL BE 1 to 6 p.m. daily.
THE COST is $2.50 for children and $3.50 adults at Cunningham and Ewert parks, and 75 cents at Schifferdecker Park. Children under 2 are admitted free. Season passes are $125 for families, $70 for adults, and $60 for children and seniors.
A WATER VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE for adults is being formed.
SWIM LESSONS will be available in June. Pool parties are $125 an hour. Details: 417-625-4750.
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Related Photos
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Kelli Owen, treasurer of the Rosedale Community Association, on Tuesday points out a new feature of the private membership pool. The pool was damaged in last year’s tornado and is being prepared for opening this spring. GLOBE | T. ROB BROWN
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Matthew Yakel, co-owner of Yakel Painting, of El Dorado Springs, on Tuesday washes the floor of the Cunningham Park pool in Joplin in preparation for a new coat of paint. The pool did not open last year after being damaged by the tornado. A new four-plume slide is in the background. GLOBE | T. ROB BROWN
Discussion
Tornado-damaged pools reopening soon around Joplin
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
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Joplin insurance agent seeks donations for Moore, Okla.
After losing an office building and her home in the tornado on May 22, 2011, Loretta Bailey is familiar with the destruction that a tornado brings. The 400 households that her insurance agency helped through the aftermath of the tornado also know that loss. \
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SLIDESHOW: One year later, One day of unity, updated
Photos from a day of events commemorating the May 22, 2011 tornado anniversary
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Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
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Federal, state leaders salute Joplin’s recovery
A deadly May twister may have punched a hole in Joplin and Duquesne two years ago, but the resolve to repair it will help other communities stand strong when they face similar disasters. That was the message of state and national diginitaries to a crowd of about 2,500 who observed the second anniversary of Joplin’s devastating May 22, 2011, storm during a ceremony Wednesday in Cunningham Park.
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Banner from Joplin to be sent to Moore residents
A giant vinyl banner adorned with heartfelt messages from Joplin tornado survivors to the residents of Moore, Okla., became a centerpiece of Wednesday’s observance of the two-year anniversary of the May 22, 2011, tornado.
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Rick Rescorla award named for hero of Vietnam War, 9-11 terror attacks
The Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is named for a 62-year-old vice president of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. who directed an evacuation of the company’s 2,700-person workforce in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011.
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Community gearing up for two-year anniversary ceremony this afternoon
With the playground full of children, it could be any other day at Joplin’s Cunningham Park, but the white tents popping up and neat rows of white chairs lined up nearby indicate something more is happening today.
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Farmers Insurance teams up with Rebuild Joplin
Farmers Insurance announced Tuesday that the company will team up with Rebuild Joplin for an initiative to help the community complete its recovery efforts. The company already has placed one of its executives in Joplin, and it is pledging additional funds and volunteer hours by company workers to go toward the city’s recovery.
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Joplin man continues struggle to recover two years after tornado
As the Joplin tornado passed overhead, sweeping the house at 2430 S. Pennsylvania Ave. away in its wake, there was a moment of calm. Delbert Mcguirk was on his back in the basement, where he had sought shelter along with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren. In that moment of relative quiet, he stared up into the eye of the tornado.
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Storms cause damage throughout the Four States
Four-State Area residents hunkered down twice Monday to ride out tornadoes and powerful spring storms, then went to work cleaning up. The worst damage from Monday night’s storm was being reported in Ottawa County, Okla., near Wyandotte. That followed a report of an EF-1 tornado early Monday morning near Carthage.
- More May 2011 Joplin tornado Headlines
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