ROCKWELL CITY — The Rockwell City City Council has decided that the outdoor pool will open sometime this summer, but the details and timing are yet to be determined.

During a special meeting to discuss the plans for the pool on Thursday, the council voted 3-2 in favor of opening this summer. The discussion on the pool continued during Monday’s regular council meeting.

“Last night we were just talking about when might we get it open, what kind of hours will it have,” Mayor Phil Heinlen said. “We have to do social distancing, so we have to figure out with our square footage of the pool, how many people can be in there six feet apart. We’ll have to limit our attendance to that number and tell everybody else to wait outside until somebody leaves if they want to.”

The mayor said the biggest obstacle standing in front of the pool opening is that the state hasn’t laid out guidance on how to operate outdoor municipal pools during the summer.

“We don’t know exactly what we’re up against,” he said. “We don’t know if they’re going to allow concessions. Are they going to allow the baby pools to be open?”

Until the Iowa Department of Public Health releases some guidance on outdoor pools, or the county department of health does, the city of Rockwell City won’t know for sure when the pool will open.

“A lot of our discussion was just discussion without any results because we’re kind of waiting on the department of health to help us out,” Heinlen said.

Finalizing the plans for the pool opening and how it will operate this summer will be an ongoing process, the mayor said, but for now the plan is for the pool to open at some point.

“We’re going to try to get it cleaned up and ready as soon as we can, but when that will be, we’re not sure yet,” Heinlen said.