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VALLEY – The indoor pool at Valley Community Center has reopened, and the crowds going there have been tremendous.

“We’ve been closed since Christmas,” the city’s swim program director, Bobby Poer, told The Valley Times-News. “We thought at first that it would be closed for a couple of weeks to allow for some needed upgrades, but it took a lot longer than we expected to get it back open.”

It took a couple of weeks for most of the work, including replacing a pool pump and motor, a chlorine feeder, and a motor for the spa bubbler. Causing the delay was having to replace one part, a backwash filter.

“The one we had is obsolete,” Poer explained. “It had to be remanufactured, and it took some time to get that done. It put off reopening the pool a lot longer than we expected.”

The backwash valves on an indoor pool filter are used to reverse the flow of water through the filter, essentially cleaning it by flushing out trapped debris and sediment. The process is necessary to maintain the filter’s efficiency and to ensure clean, clear pool water.

“The backwash filter was the sole reason for the delay,” Poer said. “Everything else was done in a couple of weeks. I really don’t know why it took so long to get it done, but I’m glad we are back up and running as the summer season has gotten here.”

The recent upgrades are the first major mechanical improvements needed at the pool since the Community Center opened some 20 years ago.