SWEET HOME — The way A. Jay Bronson sees it, a pool is a community resource, so his job is to make it available to the community as much as possible.
Bronson, the new supervisor of the Sweet Home Community Pool, took over for Gretchen Daugherty, who left as of July 1 to pursue a Master's Degree in Teaching at Eastern Oregon University.
The 30-year-old Bronson has already begun testing expanded lap swim times during the week, moving what had been one-hour blocks at 11:30 a.m. to a three-hour block starting at 9:30.
In August, he'll add both lap swim and rec swim times to the weekends, something that's not currently available.
"I have the staff. The kids are here," he said. "We're going to try it for August, see if it's financially viable, if the community wants it. If so, we'll see about doing it for the rest of the year."
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That's good news to Linda Rummel and Mariana Orri, two regulars who say they prefer a slightly earlier start but don't want to get up at 5:30 to hit the early-bird lap swim.
The usual time frame was getting too crowded, Rummel added. "This is amazing. We've been asking to expand midday swim. Nine-thirty to 12:30 is fabulous."
The pool, build on the campus of Sweet Home High School at 1641 Long St. in 1958, was funded by the school district until 2013. It's now paid for through a local option levy, which is up for possible renewal.
Bronson grew up in Sedona, Arizona, and has been a swimmer nearly all his life. He moved from club swimming as a child and preteen to team swimming in high school, where he broke a few school records and earned some top-10 finishes at state competitions.
He figured he would carry swimming to college at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. And he did, for one year, until a case of bacterial meningitis took him out of the pool, out of school and out of what had been his college plan.
"I lost 50 pounds in three weeks," he said. "About five months of my life, I don't remember."
Bronson moved back home to Arizona after that, enrolling in Northern Arizona University and working on a teaching degree. He returned to the pool to try to get in shape, was asked to help coach and then offered a job coaching swimming at Sedona Red Rock High School.
Bronson spent 12 years coaching at Sedona in all, eight as head coach. When his wife, Bailey, who grew up in Elgin, landed a job teaching history and English for the Santiam Canyon School District in Mill City, he found the position in Sweet Home. Now the couple are living in Stayton with their dogs, Tucker and Kash, and while they look for a home in the middle.
Bronson said he always loved to swim and wanted to give back to the activity, which is why he was excited to get the Sweet Home job.
He said he's been asked to bring back learn-to-swim programs for elementary grades especially, with the idea that everyone in the community should be safe around water. And he's trying to add more recreation time so families have a place to go together.
"The goal, more than anything else, is to expand the hours of the pool," he said. "A pool is a community resource and it should be utilized as such."