Glasgow council to consider naming aquatic center for longtime pool employee

By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1

The Glasgow Common Council is expected to consider a resolution to honor a longtime employee of the former Glasgow City Pool by naming the new aquatic center under construction at American Legion Park after her.

Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department mentioned the idea early in the process of getting the new facility built to replace the pool that was 46 years old and got increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. Joyce Driver greeted swimmers there for 40 of those years, he said.

At the most recent meeting of the council’s parks and recreation committee, Furlong said it was time for a formal decision about naming the aquatic center. He had typed out a paragraph in advance that was distributed to the members, and he began reading a slightly different version of that message.

“Joyce Driver worked as a seasonal pool manager and also concessions manager from 1982 to 2022 for my department. It was in 2022 when her health forced her to give up the job she loved. If you’ve ever been to the old city pool, which I’m sure most of us have, you ran into Miss Joyce. You heard her disciplining kids. I know she got on Tommy over here several times,” he said, referring to Councilman Tommy Burris, a committee member, as some in the group chuckled.

He added that she led the lifeguards and helped the other seasonal employees do their jobs.

He had also written that she helped raise thousands of kids in our community over her years at the pool.

“There is not a person that is more deserving to have this new facility named after Joyce Driver was an invaluable member of our family through all those years!” Furlong had written.

Furlong said that Miss Joyce, as most know her, had been a “firm fixture at the city pool and our concession stands for many, many years, and I just think it’s the right thing” for the center to have her name.

“I’m open to discussions on everything, but that would be my opinion on what we do,” he said. “The reason I’m kind of pushing this is because we want to get it named, but we also need to have a sign made so that hopefully we can have that up before our open house.”

As it became increasingly apparent that the original plan to have the aquatic facility – which features a zero-depth-entry pool area with several water-play features; a family slide that multiple people can go down together; lap lanes; two tall, twisty slides for individuals; and a lily-pad bridge area – ready to open this summer wasn’t going to happen, city officials decided to at least have an open house to introduce the community to the park once construction on this phase is complete. The current work also includes construction of four pickleball courts and bathrooms at the front of the park where the pool used to be.
Furlong said that, at that point, Driver didn’t know anything about this proposal.

“I think it would be the just the best thing in the world that ever happened to her if that’s what we did,” he said.

Councilwoman Chasity Lowery, who chairs the committee and has twin sons who are now college age, reflected on the amount time she spent at the pool with them.

“Miss Joyce was making sure those babies ate,” she said, guessing that Driver probably also spent a fair amount of her own salary to make sure kids had what they needed and make sure they were safe.

Furlong said that Driver’s kids would tell you that’s where they grew up. He said he worked with her for 24 years, and “she’s just one of the best people you’ll ever come across.”

He added that she had also worked for the schools for a long time as well, and Councilman Randy Wilkinson, who is not a committee member but often attends the group’s meetings, confirmed he had worked with her there.

“I think that 40 years of service to that pool, specifically,” Lowery said, “speaks volumes.”

Councilman Terry Bunnell asked Furlong whether he had thought of any other names as possibilities.

“Honestly, I didn’t. That was the first thing that came to my mind, and I just think it feels like the right thing,” Furlong replied.

Mayor Henry Royse suggested that the committee make a recommendation before it goes before the council for a permanent decision through a resolution.

Councilman Freddie Norris made a motion to make it happen, adding that it sounded reasonable to him, and Burris seconded it.

Bunnell asked about who may have been instrumental in getting the pool open, and Furlong said probably Ochell Tuck, for whom the softball complex at Beaver Creek Park is already named. Wilkinson mentioned then-Mayor Luska Twyman, for whom Twyman Park is named and, as of this year, Glasgow City Hall was renamed.

Furlong listed other things within his department that bear the names of individual people, and after a few more minutes of discussion, the vote was unanimous to recommend naming the aquatic center after Driver.

The resolution proposing the name Joyce Driver Aquatic Center is on the agenda for Monday’s regular council meeting.

It states that she was born in Glasgow and lists the years she worked for the department, including as pool manager and concessions manager, and goes on to say that she “played an integral role in the upbringing of thousands of children in our community and the success of the former City Pool.”

It notes that she worked for Glasgow Independent Schools for 33 years, during which she served as a teacher aide and bus driver for children with special needs and cafeteria manager; that she has two children and six grandchildren “as well as many children that she has treated as grandchildren through all the years;” and that the city wishes to recognize her commitment to her job and the passion she has for the children in the community.