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Pool season arrives

The hot, humid days of summer that make the season right for swimming have been few and far between thus far, but that hasn’t meant a slow-down in pool sales.

Those in the business of selling pools say customers are eager as ever to buy them.

“We’re doing pretty good so far,” said Rich Rubendall, contract service manager with Aqua Vantage Pool & Spa, Montoursville.

And with hot days on the horizon, he expects sales to take off.

“The first streak of 80 degree temperatures, and they come in in droves. And they want their pool yesterday,” he said.

Pam Keefer, general manager of Aquarius Pool & Patio, Williamsport said not only are pools selling at her business, but supplies for them as well.

“We just sold two in-ground pools in the last 24 hours,” she said. “Things are going very well.”

Aquarius, which sells both in-ground and above-ground pools, has been in business about 40 years. With a number of local public swimming pools in Williamsport and elsewhere in the area having closed in recent years, that wouldn’t seem to hurt sales of home pools.

“I think a lot of people just want to spend more time with families,” said Amber Fagnano of Fagnano Pools Service & Supplies. “We hear a lot of people say if the kids are going to be somewhere, we’d like them to be there at home.”

Overall, she said sales have been good. She estimated that her business normally sells about one pool a week.

“You definitely get more (sales) when it’s scorching and everyone wants to swim,” she said.

Rich Silvagni, owner of Town & Country Pools, Milton, said his business has been selling and installing a lot of pools.

“We are booked out until the fall,” he said.

And sales have been good overall in recent years too. Silvagni said that many people these days like the idea of having their own pools instead of going elsewhere to swim.

Keefer said backyard pools are a means of bringing families together as pools and backyards are where people seem to be spending more time. Not surprisingly, her business also seems to be selling more patio furniture as well.

“It’s that whole backyard look, just making a nice little oasis in your backyard,” she said.

Fagano said sales of pools supplies are probably heaviest right before and after Memorial Day.

But while pool sales are probably heaviest in the warm weather months, the business never completely shuts down. Many people visit Fagnano’s business in the winter to buy a pool, she added. By the end of winter, most of the businesses are beginning to install pools.

“As soon as the weather breaks in March, and we work right up to Thanksgiving,” said Keefer.

The same goes for Aqua Vantage Pool & Spa, said Rubendall.

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