With rise in temps
Comes upswing in pool sales
By Jen Lynds
BDN Staff Writer
HOULTON — For the past 10 years, Jessica Plourde of Houlton has ignored her family’s request to install a pool in their expansive backyard.
“It just seemed like kind of a ‘want’ and not a ‘need,’” she said late last week. “You buy a pool that you are only going to use about four months out of the year, and I was just kind of thinking back to our past few summers, which really haven’t been that warm and sunny.”
Plourde changed her mind, however, when the mercury continued to rise this summer and she saw her friends purchasing low-maintenance above the ground pools from local retailers. By late June, Plourde said, she “took the plunge and bought a pool of her own.”
“Now, we just love it,” she said. “There really hasn’t been a day this summer that it has been too cold for one of us to get into the pool for a little while.”
A warming trend that lasted the first two months of summer brought temperatures that were higher than the norm and are forecast to remain above-average in August, the National Weather Service in Caribou said last month.
That sunny weather pushed Plourde into joining a number of residents contributing to a hike in pool purchases this summer, according to pool sellers in Aroostook County. The upswing is visible at retail stores that sell a variety of above-ground pools and at the only in-ground swimming pool dealer in The County.
Francine Lagasse, who has owned and operated Francine’s Pools and Spas in St. Agatha for 25 years, said late last week that she has “definitely” noticed an increase in the number of people who are buying pools because of the warmer weather.
“We have sold three or four more pools over last year,” she said. “I am the only such swimming pool dealer north of Bangor, so the rush on pools has kept me pretty busy this season.”
Lagasse said that her customers have not just come from within the St. John Valley. They also have responded to requests from Mapleton, Easton and Houlton.
“Even though there are a lot of lakes around here, people seem to like the convenience and privacy of their own pool,” she said. “They can also adjust the temperature to their own comfort and not have to worry about what is on the bottom of the pool.”
Pool sales also are up at the Walmart Supercenter in Presque Isle, according to assistant store manager Amanda Gahagan.
“We have seen a slight uptick in our above-ground pool sales here,” she said. “We have definitely sold more than last year. We only have two or three left on the shelf.”
Jack Henrickson of Presque Isle said that he used to have an in-ground pool but he filled it in approximately eight years ago a few years after all of his children moved out and he and his wife stopped using it.
“Just last month I went out and bought an above-the-ground pool because we have grandchildren now and they started asking for one,” he said, laughing. “Talk about history repeating itself.”
