MACON, Ga. — Macon kicked off the unofficial start of the summer by opening their pools, but just two of the county's six are open for business.
One pool is spending the start of its third summer with gates locked up.
The pool at the Bloomfield Community Center is closed, once again. Now, people have to reroute to other locations between 10 to 30 minutes away.
Last summer, the county said they still needed a pump at Bloomfield Community Center's pool to get it up and running. But the opening has been set back due to vandalism.
According to Chris Floore, the county's chief communications officer, people were said to be stealing electrical parts from the recreation center.
Tavia Johnson and her son just moved to the area from Minnesota. They were driving to the park, ready to swim and play basketball, until they realized the pool was locked up.
"I'm really disappointed to hear that," Johnson said. "It makes me a little sad because we probably would have liked to come and visit the pool, so now we'll have to kind of find another pool to go to. I think it's important for the community to come together and try to help support our recreation parks because they keep our kids busy during the summer and it gives the kids something positive to do and families a good place to go to in the summer time to have fun with their kids."
The county also said they are looking for more lifeguards.
Over at South-Bibb Recreation Center, lifeguards Abigail Bunn and Nadia Thomas talked about their thoughts on Bloomfield closing for the third year in a row.
"I heard that it's been closed. It's been closed multiple times," Thomas said. "But we are having a lot more gyms and rec centers open for kids and their families to come and enjoy some pool time."
Bloomfield's pool has been closed so many times that people in the community are rerouting and taking their pool parties to the South-Bibb Recreation Center.
"We get people from all over," Bunn said. "We'll get people from out of town, we'll get people from the other side of town, even if their pool is open they will still come to South Bibb."
Mason Dorvil just finished sixth grade, and was there with his friends for some after-school fun in the sun, before it started to rain.
"It's pretty crazy that we have to drive like 25, 30 minutes when there's a water park 10 minutes away and it's closed," Dorvil said.
So far, the county is looking at significant repairs to the Bloomfield Community Center pool. They have no estimate on when that pool might be ready for dives and cannonballs.
Looking ahead, you have two options to dive into next week.
The Delores Brooks Recreation Center on Ocmulgee East Blvd., and the South-Bibb Recreation Center on Houston Road.
Both pools are open from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. next Tuesday through Thursday, May 28 through May 30.