Vandalism at Escalon’s community pool forced officials to shut it down for a day on Friday, June 20.
“Luckily, it was just one day and it wasn’t 100 degrees,” said Bridget Gaines of the city’s recreation department.
Damage was done when vandals took the sandbags that had been used as weights to secure the E-Z ups in place, providing shade canopies at the site, and poured the sand from those bags into the deep end of the pool.
The vandalism occurred sometime late Thursday night or early Friday morning, and Escalon police said the case remains under investigation. They are also trying to determine if additional vandalism and graffiti found on the school campus the same day was related to the pool incident. Gaines added that a contractor was brought in to extract the sand from the pool and, once a thorough clean-up was done, the pool was able to open as scheduled on Monday.
There was no disruption of swimming lessons at the pool, since the classes run just Monday through Thursday.
Meanwhile, officers doing additional security checks at the pool over the weekend located several subjects trespassing and swimming in the pool after hours. They were detained and one subject attempted to flee the scene. He told police he had not been involved in the vandalism, but he was cited to Probation for trespassing and resisting arrest.
Gaines said sandbags are no longer being used to hold down the canopies.
The next series of swimming lessons starts Monday, June 30 and runs through July 10 (No classes July 4) and the third session will run from July 14 through 24. Lessons are offered both morning and afternoon, with a fee of $35 for the first child in a family, $25 for each additional child in the same family. Mommy and Me classes are $30 and Adult swimming lessons are $35. Swimming lessons are offered in two-week sessions, Monday through Thursday in half-hour blocks, Mommy and Me runs Tuesdays and Thursdays for a half hour.
Call Gaines for more information or to sign up, 691-7372.