Waco’s only public pool is kicking off its second summer season in a lower-income East Waco neighborhood that was short on swimming options for years.
But is the $5 admission fee at Doris Miller Community Pool keeping away those neighbors it was intended to serve?
That’s a question a Waco Bridge reader asked us in an email last month and copied to city officials. The $5 fee, which applies to children as well as adults, increased from $3 last fall.
The reader compared the new admission to public pools in other cities and mentioned the impact the new rate could have on larger families in East Waco, where incomes are below the city average. In the nearby Carver neighborhood, 35% of workers are considered “working poor,” according to a Prosper Waco report.
We decided to explore our reader’s question along with a few of our own.
What swimming options has East Waco had?
The Doris Miller indoor pool and community center at 1020 Elm Ave. occupy a former branch of the YMCA that Waco purchased in 2021. The pool portion opened in January 2025 after an extensive remodel, ending a four-year drought in pool access for East Wacoans. The Doris Miller YMCA was East Waco’s last remaining community pool after the city converted the pool at Oscar DuConge Park to a splash pad in 2010. After it closed, East Waco children were bused across town for swimming lessons at the YMCA in West Waco.
Waco’s decision to adopt and remodel the pool bucks the trend among Texas cities, which have been closing pools for years due to tight budgets and high maintenance costs.
Why the price increase?
The reasons for the $2 fee hike last year are neither complicated nor specific to the pool, said Jonathan Cook, Waco’s Parks and Recreation director.
In response to inflation and the city’s budget balancing measures last summer, the department instituted 3% increases to programmatic fees “across the board,” he said. “That’s where that slight increase came from.”
Some East Wacoans who spoke to the Bridge said neighborhood residents are no more insulated from inflation than the city is, and that maintaining low fees is paramount. “With everything that’s going on today, five dollars is a lot of money,” said James E. Lee, president of the Carver Neighborhood Association and a justice of the peace whose office is across the street from the Doris Miller Pool.
He used the example of a family of four to illustrate his point. “That’s $20 to go swimming a day.”
But Waco city officials say they’re working to keep access affordable in other ways, including talks of scholarship-based passes seen in other cities. A newly released “Summer Splash Pass” grants unlimited access to the pool for $25 per-person through Aug. 8., and coincides with a “Splash Bash” event this Saturday.
In addition, group swim lessons are available for $40 for four sessions.
“We know that affordability is important,” said Andrea Barefield, who represents East Waco on the city council. She spearheaded efforts to purchase the property from the YMCA in 2021. “The people were clamoring for it and the only other pool was clear on the other side of town.”
How does Doris Miller compare?
A Waco Bridge survey of public pool prices in Texas did find that Doris Miller is above average in cost among pools managed by medium-sized cities.
But comparing city pools can be tricky.
Payment options, definitions of youth and adult, and the amenities offered at each pool are rarely identical. For example, some pools have extensive water play equipment, and some, like the Doris Miller Pool, are indoor.
To create our list, the Bridge looked for public pools in cities mentioned by the reader, as well as pools in Texas “peer cities” often referenced by Waco city staff.
Indoor pools were selected when possible to better match against the Doris Miller pool. If a city did not have an indoor pool, an outdoor facility was selected if it had similar amenities or was priced below $10. Package deals and punch cards were excluded from the pricing comparison.
Our comparison suggests that youth day passes at the Doris Miller pool are more expensive than six of the nine cities surveyed, while adult day passes are more expensive than five of the nine cities. Waco’s youth passes were $1.60 above average, but adult passes were only 60 cents above average.
Still, the comparison is not perfect. Round Rock, for example, charges $6 for the first youth day pass to its Clay Madsen Recreation Center and $1 for all subsequent visits, highlighting the difficulty in comparing fee structures cleanly. Meanwhile, Tyler’s Fun Forest Park pool is outdoors and only open seasonally, but it’s cheaper than all other options surveyed at $1 per-visit for residents and includes a larger pool than Doris Miller as well as two water slides nested in a play structure.
Poolgoers undeterred
Saundrea Bible, an East Waco native and mother of four, thinks the Doris Miller day pass is still in reach for families like hers.
“I’m a mom that likes to save,” Bible said, “so I’m always looking for ways for my children to be able to do things. Sometimes it’s a little sacrifice, but I think this (pool) is affordable as well as worth it.” She remembers driving her children to the West Waco YMCA and her relief when the city stepped in to keep Doris Miller open. Bible’s children are now taking swim lessons for their second summer at Doris Miller.
Bible added that access is critical, but so is access to swim lessons.
“I believe highly in professional lessons for our children, because they deserve that, … to have firsthand instructions in water safety.”
Swim lesson signups at the pool are up 11% this summer compared to last summer, Cook said. Some 7,000 people have used the facility since it opened, he said. Aquatics advocates have called for a new swim facility purpose-built for competitions in McLennan County.
The popularity of East Waco’s small public pool and swim lessons could bolster the case for expanding affordable pool access after a long period of decline.
