KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County's new Splash Valley is really more of an aquatic play area than a traditional swimming pool, yet it drew people from not only the county but also from surrounding localities and as far away as West Virginia.

Maria Fleenor plays with her daughter Eliza Fleenor, 4, at Splash Valley at the Green Ridge Recreation Center. Officials said the park had only a few opening-season glitches.

Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Kayla Gibson, 10, spins around the bowl slide Thursday at Splash Valley at Green Ridge Recreation Center in Roanoke County. Splash Valley contains water sprays, a "lazy river," slides and fountains.

Because it's been hotter than h---, uh, blazes this summer, it's tempting to think of the state of the Roanoke Valley's public pools in theological terms -- creation, decline and resurrection.

Splash Valley, the new outdoor aquatic play area at Roanoke County's Green Ridge Recreation Center, is expected to have drawn nearly 50,000 visitors this season by the end of today. That's at the high end of expectations for the pool's inaugural season.

In Roanoke, each of the two city pools operated only three days a week. Attendance of 12,400 was down 41 percent from last year as the city tightened its budget belt by cutting hours.

But in Vinton, the small, tired 61-year-old town pool got a facelift and a boost from a corps of volunteers from Thrasher Memorial United Methodist Church. Attendance rocketed 70 percent, to more than 11,400, and revenue jumped 60 percent over last season.

The Vinton facility is more humble than the valley's other municipal pools in terms of size and amenities, but it demonstrated a successful public-private partnership model likely to be expanded in the future.

In May 2009, the Vinton Town Council, facing a potentially calamitous budget shortfall, decided that it would close the pool after that year's season. Taxpayer subsidies of $40,000 to $50,000 a year to keep it open were just too high, the council decided.

But a year later, Thrasher Memorial -- situated almost directly across Washington Avenue from the pool -- stepped in and offered to help keep the facility open.

In May, church volunteers painted, trimmed trees, set up picnic tables and generally brightened up the place for its June 5 opening.

During the summer, the church sponsored a concession stand where nothing cost more than 75 cents. That in itself was a blessing to some people, said the Rev. Lynne Alley-Grant, Thrasher's lead pastor. She recalled one man who thanked her for creating a place where he could afford to treat his children.

Each Wednesday night, admission was only a dollar and included a free, full meal, courtesy of the church. Alley-Grant said the free meals will continue in the church gym, even though the pool is now closed.

The church also funded the $40 tuition for every child who came to the pool for swimming lessons -- a total of 129 children, compared with 12 last year.

After Alley-Grant explained that program to her congregation, she said "a 90-year-old came in with a donation and said, 'All my life I was sad because I never learned to swim and was afraid of the water. This way I can help at least one child.' "

The pastor said she is "really excited about the concept of churches and the community being able to partner together ... to help make it a better place to live."

Vinton Town Manager Chris Lawrence declared the relationship a success on every level.

Although final expenses haven't yet been tallied, Lawrence said he was sure the increased use and volunteers help trimmed the cost to taxpayers. He also said he, like Alley-Grant, hopes to find other areas to cooperate.

"The church can be very instrumental with quality-of-life services. We're going to have to partner. Government just can't do it by itself," Lawrence said.

Pete Haislip, Roanoke County's director of parks, recreation and tourism, also is passionate about the value of such amenities.

Facilities such as Splash Valley, and the Green Ridge Recreation Center it adjoins, improve the quality of life in immeasurable ways, he said.

Based on what Haislip said was "an educated guesstimate," it appeared that the benefits extended across a broad region. He said he believed more than 50 percent of the Splash Valley pool's patrons were nonresidents of the county, some from as far away as Martinsville, Galax, Lynchburg and Lewisburg, W.Va.

While final figures aren't in yet, the pool is already a profitmaker for the new recreation center, Haislip said.

The attraction was a new kind of water experience for the Roanoke Valley. Less a swimming pool than an aquatic play area, Splash Valley is only 3.5 feet deep, except under the bowl slide where it's 8 feet.

Water sprays, a "lazy river," slides and fountains attracted the tens of thousands.

But as successful as this first summer was, Haislip said he thinks it will be even better in a summer with fewer thunderstorms -- which at least temporarily close the pool.

On days where storms are in the forecast, out-of-county visitors are less likely to venture out, he said. On days when the pool has to be closed early, people were given rain checks.

The facility uses a sophisticated weather-monitoring computer program that instantaneously shows lightning strikes within a certain distance of the pool. If strikes are shown between 10 and 30 miles away, the staff is put on alert; if a strike is recorded within 10 miles, the pool is cleared.

It was a good system, Haislip said, except on occasions when only a strike or two was recorded 10 miles out, and the storm that generated it was actually moving away. In those cases, the pool may have been cleared unnecessarily.

"We'll probably try to fine-tune the observations" by next year, he said.

There were a few complaints, Haislip acknowledged.

Some patrons wanted to bring in their own rafts, but he said that could block the view of the bottom of the pool, hindering life guards.

Others wanted to bring in their own food, but Haislip defended that ban on both safety grounds -- keeping glass and alcohol from the pool area -- and because concessions produce revenue to help fund the facility.

Roanoke operated on what is arguably the most traditional municipal pool model, but had to cut operating days and the length of the season to achieve the 50 percent cost savings mandated by the current budget.

Parks and Recreation Director Steven Buschor said he was pleased with how the summer went considering the mandate to cut costs.

And the fact that attendance was down 41 percent while costs were down 50 percent is evidence that the operation became more efficient -- serving more patrons per tax dollar than last year.

Both the Fallon Park and Washington Park pools were open three days each, creating swimming opportunities six days of the week, Buschor said, "which is what our goal was."

"We'd love to be able to be able to provide swimming programs all summer long [at both pools], but we understand, too, that we have to do the best we can with what we have."