Public pools get ready for swimmers; Wake Forest pool opening delayed

Public pools are opening for the season. Find out where they are and when they open in our sortable database!

Posted 12:55 a.m. May 23, 2011 — Updated 12:55 a.m. May 23, 2011

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

You know it's summer when the public pools start opening.

Triangle municipalities are getting ready for the summer swim season. Most outdoor pools will open over the next few weeks - many during this coming Memorial Day weekend.

A couple of outdoor pools - the baby pool and sprayground at Millbrook Exchange Park and the wading and diving pools at Optimist Park in Raleigh - opened last weekend. The two complexes also feature larger pools that are open all year.

And one pool - Holding Park Pool in Wake Forest - likely won't open until mid-June as the town repairs a major leak in the 50-meter pool, one of the largest outdoor pools in the area. Holding usually opens for Memorial Day weekend.

I've updated our public pools database and added some fields after getting a question from a reader. You can now sort the list by outdoor pool, indoor pool, sprayground and pools with slides. I'll also have some posts this summer featuring some of the pools and spraygrounds in the area. For those who've never been to a sprayground, these are kind of like playgrounds with water features that dump and spray water on you.

Click here to search our database. Please note that the database includes only municipal or county-run pools that anybody in the public can swim at, not pools at private clubs or neighborhoods or pools that require a membership.

And while it won't be open for this summer season, I just wanted to update that Raleigh's newest aquatic center at Buffaloe Road Athletic Park in east Raleigh is slated to open in March 2012 (later than the fall opening that had been planned). The facility's focus will be on recreation with slides, a lazy river, vortex, water basketball and volley ball and more. There also will be four lap lanes.

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