EDCO Pool on Saturday, Sept. 5, was closed for the season and the staff and volunteers will soon winterize the facility. Eddie Trizzino/Butler Eagle

EVANS CITY — The weather was still good for swimming past EDCO Pool’s planned closing date of Aug. 23, so it hosted its final swim, a night session, Tuesday, Sept. 1. Now, instead of 32 lifeguards and a crew of desk and concession stand workers, the pool will be populated by volunteers, who will be there preparing it for winter through the first week of October.

Ronny Royhab, manager of EDCO Park and Pool, said the pool’s shutdown and winterization procedures are handled each year by himself and a crew of volunteers.

Although the overcast weather Saturday, Sept. 5, put a delay on the planned initial cleanup of the pool, Royhab said there will still be semi-regular activity there for about the next month.

“We continue to run it for about a month,” Royhab said. “One night, someone might come clean the bathrooms, someone might scrub the floor... keep the leaves out the pool.”

The delay from Saturday probably won’t hurt the pool much — Royhab said it just has to be winterized before the first frost. This means that it has to not only be cleared of its furnishings and equipment, but cleaned and covered before the temperature gets too low.

To do this, the pool is partially drained so it can be scrubbed, and then it is refilled with water to a certain point, which keeps the structure in tact.

Royhab said the pool usually gets a cover put on the first week or so of October. The major work on the pool really takes place in the spring, when it is prepared not for winter hibernation, but for summer exhilaration.

“You can't do a lot to an outdoor pool in the fall and expect it to be good in the spring,” Royhab said. “We do all our power washing in the spring, scrub it out. All of the furniture gets power washed and cleaned.”

Even Royhab’s position as manager of the pool is seasonal, but he said he and Evans City are working to provide more work opportunities in the parks department that extend throughout the year. He is also EDCO Fest director and treasurer of the EDCO Foundation, and it is these roles, Royhab said, that keeps him working on EDCO Park and Pool throughout the year.

“We do a lot of fundraising to keep it funded. I run EDCO Fest, and the park is heavily involved in that,” Royhab said.