Knicely Done: How summer swimming was saved

Things looked bleak in Plattsmouth for summer swimming.

The city water treatment plant was shut down in March when it was engulfed by flood waters. Now four months later repairs are still underway and will continue for some time.

With no water to fill the city pool, Plattsmouth leaders were faced with the difficult decision of closing the pool down for the summer.

That's when a group of citizens including Roger Schmidt came up with the idea of trucking water into town to fill up the pool.

"We just said 'okay here's our volunteers, here's the people that are going to help us, and we just decided to do it and we did it,'" explained Schmidt in an interview WOWT 6 News.

The group effort began in May with Schmidt providing the drivers and transportation with his stainless steel trailers while his nearby neighbor Rob Meisinger, who owns Fast Grass, supplied water from his well.

"There were three of us drivers in the rotation for about eight days," said driver Mike Wilson. "It took us 47 trips to fill the 210-thousand gallon pool."

Schmidt pointed out that a go fund me page was also started to help fund the project and the community response was strong.

"Oh my goodness they're saints," said Beth Staskiewicz of Plattsmouth. "Thank you so much for giving your time to the community, we appreciate it and the kids all appreciate it and that's what summer is all about."

Schmidt held up a pile of thank you notes from young swimmers in the community that he saved.

"It's really special that these young kids sent all these thank you notes to us for filling the pool. And we really enjoyed getting these. It just shows you the community appreciated it."

Knicely Done!