Mark Rieder, site supervisor for the North Boundary Water Park in Cranberry Township, offers a glimpse of everyday pool operations.

Butler County is filled with a variety of people doing interesting things.

This weekly feature offers snapshots of some of them by asking them five questions. The latest installment appears below.

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With Memorial Day weekend — the official start of the pool season — fast approaching, Cranberry Township's North Boundary Water Park site supervisor Mark Rieder is busy readying the pool for swimmers and sunbathers. He has been working for the township in his current capacity for the past three seasons.

Here, Rieder discusses the season's work:

QUESTION: What do you do to prepare for the pool opening?ANSWER: Once the pool is filled, we then call our pool company out to add chemicals into the pool. We then move forward with pressure washing the pool deck as well as all of our Adirondack chairs and our lounge chairs. We also have a crew that is scrubbing down everything in the concession stand to make sure that everything is clean and ready to be used for opening weekend. In the next week or so, we will be starting to vacuum the entire pool to make sure it is at the cleanest before opening weekend.

QUESTION: What is your daily routine during swimming season?ANSWER: On a daily basis we are responsible for making sure the entire pool is vacuumed free of sand and debris from the previous day of swimming. We also have to back wash the tank so that our filters are always clean and to make sure the pool is always crystal clear.On busy days, we are also responsible for directing cars in the parking lot to make sure they use all the parking spots near the pool before they start parking in the grass. We do this so we monitor where the cars are being parked so that they are not blocking any emergency exits or the flow of traffic. At the end of the day, we have to empty the trash in all the cans and take it to the Dumpsters and we have to scrub the bathroom floors and scrub the toilets with cleaner so they are nice and clean for the next day.

QUESTION: What is the best/worst part of your job?ANSWER: The best part of doing maintenance is that you are always moving around and you get to be outside all of the time. One of the worst parts of being a maintenance worker is that you have to clean toilets. Also it's when people have accidents in the pool any you are required to clean them up.

QUESTION: What is the most interesting thing you found in the pool or filter and speculate on how it might have gotten in there?ANSWER: The most interesting things we have found in the pool are lost earrings and kids silly bands. When we vacuum the pool we always come up on something shiny and it ends up being earrings and when we retrieve them from the pump we send them to lost and found where the owner can come and claim them if they'd like to.

QUESTION: How do you fill the pool up and how much and what chemicals are needed for the entire season?ANSWER: To fill the pool we use a 4-inch main water line that takes about 17 to 20 hours to fill the entire swimming pool. The whole swimming pool is 15,000 square feet and it takes about 440,000 gallons of water to be filled.

QUESTION: What is a little known interesting fact people might not be aware of about the Cranberry pool?ANSWER: The Cranberry Waterpark offers specials throughout the summer months. One of our most popular specials is the refillable drinks bottles. Once the bottle is purchased it only costs $1 to refill on Coke products throughout the summer months. We offer popcorn buckets that once it is purchased you receive a bucket of popcorn for $1 refills.