Kool Park Pool — Local services in Hickory

Today, my family and I went to Kool Park Pool in Hickory today to enjoy our summer and the beautiful weather that we've been having. My cousin, who is thirteen years old, brought in his football not knowing that it would be confiscated. As we were paying, the lady taking our money takes our bags and empties them thoroughly exposing our undergarments and all in front of everyone to see. She clearly saw that we had a football in the bag but did not say a thing about it.

After playing with the football in the pool for about three hours, the lady comes to my little brother and cousins and demands for the football saying that it was to be confiscated and that we should have never had it with us in the first place. We gave them no trouble and handed them the ball apologizing for not knowing that we could not bring it in. There are no rules saying that you cannot bring in a ball. There were many families who came that brought their own balls to play with. There is a giant "No" list posted up on the wall and on their website and neither one of those lists state that we cannot bring in our own ball. We were informed that we could retrieve our ball upon exiting the pool.

My cousin retrieved his ball as we were departing. Seeing that someone had taken a black sharpie and marked all over it, we asked the owners how this had happened. It was not in this condition when they confiscated it from us. The owner then blamed us saying that we should have known that balls were not allowed and we should have never brought it in the first place. Keep in mind, there are no rules stating that and she checked all of our bags and failed to inform us of a rule that was not clearly stated. She then said that she did not even know how we got the ball inside as if we had snuck it in. My aunt then replied, "well, you checked our bags inside and out, even removing our underwear, bras, everything. You had to have seen the ball then and should have told us that we couldn't bring it in! The ball didn't just magically appear." She just shrugged and said nothing else.

Not wanting to waste anymore time talking to the owners, my aunt instructed all of us to just head to the bathrooms to change so we could head out. My uncle stayed outside to watch the rest of our belongings. While in the bathrooms, I hear the owner yelling at my uncle and telling him that he was the one who intentionally drew on our ball to mark our ball in case we ever returned with it, he could easily identify it and take it to. My aunt went back outside and told him how ridiculous a person he was for doing such a terrible thing to someone else's property while in their hands. The owner laughed trying to justify his actions by saying it was to make sure that the ball never came back.

It is disgusting that the owners who confiscated this ball, pridefully admitted that they defaced the ball of my thirteen year old cousin just to make sure it would not come back. It is a violation of personal property. If a little kid were to have gotten in the back and marked all over it, it would have been more understanding. But to find out that the owner did this himself is disgusting. What upsets me the most is not that the ball is defaced, but at the action that the owner took. There were no rules against bringing in balls. All of our bags were checked and they did not say a word. We played with the ball for about three hours before they confiscated it. And upon departure, our ball was defaced to ensure that we would not bring it again. This is destruction of personal property done by the owner himself! This is...

My husband and I and our children have been visiting for quite a few years now and absolutely love it because the temperature of the pool is wonderful and the layout is really nice, also the night swims are great to escape the hot sun and are reasonably priced and offer live music and food trucks. We love that it's a family run business and is usually relaxing and peaceful. Also with police patrolling, very safe. However, these past couple of visits have been terrible because the lifeguards do absolutely nothing to combat the insane children and teenagers who obviously are not watched by their parents and continuously cause havoc everywhere for other children and families.. especially the slide! They need a lifeguard right at the entrance of the slide or somewhere extremely close by because you will have ten kids at a time going down without waiting for the previous person to reach a far enough distance down the slide so people get kicked, ran into, hurt.... Nobody with small children could do it without fear of getting hurt. It's HORRIBLE. One lifeguard kept turning around to try and say something but he's so far away nobody listens and cannot hear. Like I said, one needs to be very close to the slide and enforce the rules! It's becoming a very unpleasant experience every time we visit.

Another issue is I believe the staff standing around outside should have a shirt or badge, something signifying that they are workers because we were walking past them since we thought they were just teens on their phones hanging about but got yelled at for a bag check. We absolutely do not mind a bag check, in fact we love it so we know we are in a safe place but being yelled at "I NEED TO CHECK THAT BAG" by someone who looks like a random teen waiting around (not even close to the entrance line" put a bad taste in our mouth.

I would love to see these things, ESPECIALLY the slide situation fixed because we adore this pool but it's becoming too much for our kids and us to be able to enjoy ourselves...

Today I changed my review because the place is infested with wasps and I got stung and had to go to ER. It was so very painful and red welts appeared on my skin. I felt sick and confused. The owner must find a solution before someone dies. Once this is completed I will resume the 5 star review. Exterminators may have a solution. Previous review bf todays vist-The water park is a 5 star! There are 3 different level diving boards and the pool is 15ft on that end. It was fun to watch all the kids dive and do flips. I thought this is a great place for families to come. There are picnic tables and grill. They have food trucks on certain days. We went to the night session and it was perfect weather and min crowd. Nice and cool. Prices are very reasonable in comparison to other town waterparks. Even though I do not agree or think its fair for any adult chaperone to pay admission that is not going to be in the pools or slide, I was ok paying at this one because of the low rates. I have expressed to other parks that paper bracelets are an option to keep people from being dishonest bc not every chaperone will partake in the park activities. There were lifeguards and a police office for security. We didn't see thongs or bees! There are wood benches to sit on or place your things. The waterslide was fun. It's not super slick where you fly down it. There are different depths all over the pool and it is very large. Our kids wore water shoes and had no issues. Bring drinks and snacks or food of you are staying all day. The walk to your car is a very short if you need to keep a cooler in your car. Recommendations- drink and or snack machines on site or small concession stand, mirrors and papertowels in the bathroom. Lockers to place things such as wallets, jewelry cell phones etc..(not just for security for your items from people but also from water or moisture) we look forward to coming back! We drove about a half hour to get there and it was worth...