Community members in Silver Lake have saved summer, making the temporary fixes needed to keep the pool open for the rest of the season.

In late June, the Minnesota Department of Health told the city to close the community pool due to the “condition of the pool bottom.”

“There was a rough build-up on the pool and it was making such a rough surface on the pool, that the kids were getting their feet cut,” Brent Posusta, of Silver Lake, said.

Posusta, who has a couple of kids that use the pool himself, knew something had to be done when he heard about the pool possibly closing for the season. As soon as he could, Posusta urged the city to drain the pool to find the root of the problem.

When the pool was drained, Posusta leaned on his experience in construction to come up with a plan — it didn’t take long to learn all the pool needed was a good sanding and scrubbing. He used social media to call on community members to help, and they answered.

“Many hands make for light work,” Posusta said.

While within days they had the pool floor sanded, inspected and ready to go, another tall task was ahead of the city: refilling the pool. Because the city’s water is so rich in iron, it was going to take a couple of weeks for the pool to be ready. So instead, the city’s public works director, who doubles as the city’s fire chief, called on neighboring communities to help as well.

“Why it went so well [is because] everybody worked together,” Chief Dale Kosek, of the Silver Lake Fire Department, said.

Tuesday, several different fire departments helped bring in tens of thousands of gallons of chlorinated water from Hutchinson, helping speed up the process.

Chief Kosek hopes to have swimmers back by Friday.

Posusta said he feels blessed to live in the community because of how much support showed up. Because the city will eventually have to make permanent improvements to the pool, he started an online fundraiser to help the city with those efforts