"It's taken so long and I'm excited. So I wanted to be here on day one," Kathleen Killian told KJCT in June. She was standing in line for a membership to a recreation center she said she had been waiting on for maybe 40 years.
That wait ended Friday. The Community Recreation Center at 2836 Recreation Way held its ribbon-cutting at 4 p.m. on Sept. 25. On Nov. 3, city voters will decide whether to approve a tax measure for Orchard Mesa Pool. That pool was built in 1983. The two stories are tied together. Earlier this year, the CRC's opening date was one of the options on the table for closing Orchard Mesa Pool. The opening of the new building also marked the start of a decision about the old one.
How a Three-Pool Plan Became Five
Grand Junction voters approved the CRC in 2023, after years of community planning. Crews broke ground on June 1, 2024, and the city says the building took more than two years to finish.
The original plan called for three pools. Two funding sources added the other two. One was a partnership with Intermountain Health St. Mary's Regional Hospital, the center's official health partner. The other was a $1 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. That partnership is why all five pools carry the name St. Mary's Pools. The city also credits other state grants and a private contributor, Donna Patterson, with helping expand the project.
The aquatics area has two water slides, a lazy river, a climbing wall over the pool, jumping platforms, and a diving board. Outside the pools, the building has an indoor climbing wall, a gymnasium, fitness and group exercise rooms, an outdoor fitness area, a synthetic turf field, a game area, Kids Club, and community rooms.
The center sits inside Matchett Park, 205 acres off Patterson Road and 28¼ Road. People have long used the park's old farm roads for walking, running, and biking, and the park also has trails along Indian Wash. If you lived close enough to walk or bike in on those farm roads, that may have been the easier way to arrive on a crowded opening weekend.
People are clearly interested. In the first week of public tours, 1,050 people registered, according to the Daily Sentinel. Tours ran Monday through Saturday until Thursday, Sept. 24. Registration wasn't required. Visitors could meet at the main entrance at a scheduled tour time listed at gjpr.org/crctours.
Opening Weekend, Hour by Hour
The city expected big crowds and set up the free weekend to handle them.
- Friday, Sept. 25, 4 p.m. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, with complimentary refreshments.
- Friday, Sept. 25, 5 to 8 p.m. Free public use of the whole facility.
- Saturday, Sept. 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free access continued. Pool time was split into three sessions.
- 9 to 11 a.m.
- 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- 2 to 4 p.m.
- Monday, Sept. 28, 5:30 a.m. Regular operations began.
Saturday's pool sessions were first-come, first-served. Everyone had to leave the pool area when a session ended, before the next group came in. For kids mainly interested in the lazy river, arriving at the start of a session meant more time in the water. Arriving mid-session meant less time in the water and could mean waiting for the next one.
After Monday, the Weekly Schedule
Here are the regular hours starting Sept. 28, as the Daily Sentinel reported them:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday–Thursday | 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Friday | 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Saturday | 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Sunday | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
The 5:30 a.m. opening on weekdays works for anyone who wants a swim or a few laps on the track before work. Sunday is short, just six hours. If you have family plans, Saturday is the better weekend day.
A membership covers all five pools, the gym, the climbing and bouldering wall, the fitness center, the indoor track, the outdoor fitness area, the turf field, and the listed community spaces. Kids Club and event rentals cost extra. Pricing comes in more than one tier. KJCT's June report printed two sets of rates. An adult annual pass was $42 a month in one set and $57 a month in the other, and day passes and 20-visit punch passes varied the same way. Before you buy, check which tier applies to your household on the city's CRC memberships, rates, and hours page.
The CRC also changes one routine for families who never set foot in a pool. According to KJCT's August report, sign-ups for the city's major recreation programs have moved from Lincoln Park to the CRC.
The Pool on Unaweep Avenue
Orchard Mesa Pool is at 2736 Unaweep Avenue. Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction split the cost of building it in 1983, and Mesa County Valley School District 51 provided the land. The school district still owns it. The city runs it, and since the fourth quarter of 2025 the city has paid for it entirely. The Daily Sentinel has reported that an earlier agreement between the city and the district is set to end at the end of 2026.
The pool's problems have tended to show up in the boiler room. A boiler failure closed it from Nov. 14, 2022, to Jan. 16, 2023, and that repair was estimated at about $15,000. A later boiler failure brought a replacement estimated at $50,000 to $60,000 including installation. KKCO reported in June 2025 that a failed boiler that May had left the pool with colder-than-normal water, and that crews were installing the replacement. The city's project page says the pool's mechanical, pool, and building systems are at the end of their useful life, and that the facility needs a full renovation.
In February, City Council reviewed a 2023 study of the pool and discussed four options:
- Keep operating the pool.
- Close it when the new Community Recreation Center opens.
- Seek a public-private partnership to operate the pool and possibly add to the site.
- Ask voters to form a special taxing district on Orchard Mesa to take over ownership, operations, and maintenance.
Council told staff to pursue the partnership option and to gather more information on the taxing district. "The numbers at the end of the day have to work," a council member told KKCO at the time. By August, the question was headed to voters citywide instead. On Aug. 19, council voted unanimously to put the pool on the November ballot. The city says a question on its 2026 Community Satisfaction Survey showed support for putting the item before voters.
What the Nov. 3 Measure Would Do
Resolution No. 77-26 sets the ballot language. Here is what it covers.
- The tax. The city sales and use tax would go from 3.39% to 3.46%, an increase of 0.07 percentage points. That is estimated to bring in $1.9 million in 2027, the first full year.
- The debt. The city could borrow up to $12 million for repair work, which is estimated at $11.6 million. The estimated annual subsidy to operate and maintain the pool is $700,000.
- The step-down. Once the debt is paid off, and no later than Dec. 31, 2047, the rate would drop by 0.04 points. The remaining 0.03 would keep paying for operations and maintenance.
- The scope. The money would repair and replace the pool's mechanical, HVAC, filtration, and electrical systems. The resolution says the work cannot expand the pool beyond its current six lanes and 25-yard by 25-meter layout. It describes the project as a repair, not a remodel.
The city's project page adds some changes swimmers would notice, including refurbished locker rooms and a replacement for the hot tub, which doesn't work now. KKCO summarized the measure as roughly half debt service for the rebuild, with the rest going to an ongoing operating subsidy.
If voters approve the measure, the resolution says the city will start the work as soon as practicable. It doesn't say what happens to the pool if the measure fails, and the city hasn't announced a plan for that outcome. The only public record of alternatives is the list council discussed in February. The full meeting discussion and materials are on the city's Agendas and Minutes page.
Lincoln Park Stays on the Calendar
The third piece of the city's pool picture is Lincoln Park–Moyer Pool, and it isn't changing. The city still described it as an outdoor pool in June and held its July 4 celebration there. It hosted the Dog Days event on Sept. 13, 2026. The city hasn't announced any closure or schedule change there tied to the CRC opening.
So on Sept. 28, Grand Junction was running three public pools in three parts of town. The newest is five pools under one roof at Matchett Park. There's the outdoor pool at Lincoln Park. And there's a six-lane pool on Orchard Mesa whose renovation and operating subsidy will be on the ballot Nov. 3.
Where Team Aller Fits In
Public buildings like the CRC and Orchard Mesa Pool shape how people use a neighborhood day to day, and they are part of how a community decides where to invest. At Colleen Aller, we follow these projects because our clients ask about them, whether they're opening a business near Patterson Road or just want to know how their neighborhood is changing. If you'd like to talk through what's happening in your part of Grand Junction, contact us.
Tours of the CRC ran through Thursday, Sept. 24, and the ribbon-cutting began at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at 2836 Recreation Way.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
