The secrets to their success: running successful municipal pools means updating your amenities and services. But it also requires something even more difficult--updating your ideas about facilities themselves.

Aaron Himelson watches with a smile as swimmers splash away the summer at the new aquatics center in Morgan Hill, Calif. The recreation supervisor of the facility says it has created a social point for the community, drawing more than 1,000 guests daily.

Other municipal facilities tell the opposite story. No good data exists on the number of pools closing vs. the number of new pools opening. But based on anecdotes and newspaper accounts, traditional municipal pools do seem to be closing across the nation. No matter where it's happening, the reasons are almost always the same: dwindling city budgets, falling attendance and rising repair fees. Often, these pools ...