Diving Into Summer At Britton Swimming Pool

By Livia Knecht
    Editor’s Note: Livia approached the Journal around a month ago. She is enthusiastic about writing and is considering a future in journalism. In order to foster that interest, something the newspaper industry sorely needs, we encouraged Livia to write a story for us and are so pleased with the result. See the editor’s column on page two for more backstory. We look forward to other future stories from Livia!
    It’s a hot summer day and the sun is beating down. How do you want to spend it? At the Britton Swimming Pool of course! They have returned this year with a new Baker’s concession stand in addition to all of the same features that you love from last year.
    It is a given that the diving boards are a fan favorite at the pool. When asked what the best part of the pool is, most kids replied immediately: the diving boards. You can hear the kerplunks and splashes as kids go flipping, diving, and cannonballing over, and over, all day long. 
    You can also go twisting and turning down the water slide which too attracts its good chunk of people. If you have younger kids who aren’t necessarily the slide or diving board type, there is always the playground and shallow end of the pool for them.
    Besides diving boards and water slides, there is much more that the pool has to offer, swim team being one of them. This is Britton’s second year back with the team after taking a break in 2022. Unfortunately, according to Laken Werner, a manager at the pool and one of the swim team’s coaches, the team took a hit after not offering the sport for a year, saying “When we came back a lot of our older kids did not return.”
    They now only have 4-5 kids above the age of 14. Before that number was much higher. Now it is a “very, very young group.” Despite the setbacks, there is still a strong team of around 20 kids who will attend five meets including the State Meet. Swimming lessons for children and adults are also offered, as well as aqua Zumba which will be held twice a week later this summer.
    New to the pool is the Baker’s concession stand, which started because in this past year, the City of Britton had to make the unfortunate decision to not continue running their pool concessions. It was a tough choice, but at the end of the day the cost was just too great for the city.
     Before Baker’s approached the pool management about running concessions, there was a lot of disappointment surrounding the absence of them. Werner said that “It was probably pretty disappointing to a lot of people when we had to get rid of the concessions, even our staff. A lot of us depend on them just to eat throughout the day.” It is easy to understand why closing concessions would be disappointing for both visitors and employees. 
    When Baker’s owners Chelsie and Chad Anderson heard the news, they saw it as an opportunity for themselves and for the town of Britton to be able to continue having a pool concession stand. After an email and a quick city council meeting, they were approved and ready to go. 
    When choosing the menu, Baker’s looked to different local and out of state concessions for ideas. After that, Chad says they, “Combined what we thought would be appropriate here.” They also took different price points into consideration, not wanting things to get too expensive. Starting from around 63 items, they condensed to somewhere in the area of 45. 
    On the menu you can find 11 food options, seven snack and ice cream varieties, ten different candies, and 17 drinks including bubble tea and energy drinks. Goggles and sunscreen are also available for sale. A popular pool classic seems to be the freezies, while one pool-goer favorites the pretzel bites. 
    Concessions are open during all pool hours, and although they might not be busy at all times, it is safe to say that ‘swamped’ would be a good word to describe them during breaks.
    It is sure that no matter how young or old, the Britton Swimming Pool has something to offer us all. We certainly are glad that they are back yet again for another season of concessions, swimming, and summer fun!