Davenport Changing Pool Schedules Due To Hiring Difficulties

We have some not fun news to share with you to kickoff summer. Due to hiring difficulties, the City of Davenport has announced an alternative summer 2021 swimming pool schedule, and one pool will not be opening at all this summer.

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In a press release on Wednesday, the City of Davenport announced an alternative summer 2021 swimming pool schedule. The announcement comes due to hiring difficulties.

According to officials, Annie Wittenmyer Aquatic Center, located at 2828 Eastern Avenue, and Fejervary Pool, located at 1900 Telegraph Road, will be offering a hybrid public swim and lap swim schedule June 12 through August 22.

The new schedule will offer open swim will be on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Open swim will be from 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Annie Wittenmyer. Open swim at Fejervary will be Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday from 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Officials say that the Learn to Swim program will continue to be offered but the capacity will be cut in half. Learn to Swim will be held Monday through Thursday simultaneously at Annie Wittenmyer and Fejervary pools.

Both pools will run at half capacity of 325 participants at a time.

This past weekend, Centennial Spray Park and the splash pads at Cork Hill Park, Goose Creek Park, and Peterson Park opened up. Those parks will be open from 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. daily through Labor Day, weather permitting.

The sad news is that Dohse Pool will not be opening this summer. Those who frequent Dohse Pool will surely be disappointed.

Visit www.davenportiowa.com/pools for more details and schedules.

Iowa's Island City

There is something unique about every town, but there is really something special about Sabula, IA. Known as "Iowa's Island City," Sabula is the only town in the state of Iowa that is entirely on an island. While not a lot of people have been to, or live in Sabula, it is a quaint little town nestled right on the Mississippi River.

Before we show you around "Iowa's Island City," let me give you the history of Sabula. Sabula was established in 1835, according History of Jackson County, Iowa, Volume 1 by James Whitcomb Ellis. Isaac Dorman and a man named Hinkley crossed the river from the Illinois side on a log and decided to settle on what is now Sabula. An Ohio couple, James and Margaret Woods would settle on Sabula about a year later in April of 1836. Their son, Dr. E. A. Woods would purchase Hinkley's interest in the claim. Charles Swan and W. H. Brown would soon purchase Dorman's interest. The three men, Woods, Swan and Brown later had the land plotted in 1837.

The idea behind plotting the land was because there was no town between Lyons (north Clinton) and Bellevue. The plot of the new town was recorded in Dubuque as this area was part of Dubuque county at the time, according History of Jackson County, Iowa, Volume 1 by James Whitcomb Ellis.

According to Island City Harbor's website, Sabula went through a few names before landing on the official town name. In 1837, Sabula was first called Carrollport. Residents of the town didn't like the name because there was a man's name who was Carroll who had a bad reputation. The town changed its name to Charleston, after early settler Charles Swan. The only issue was that there was already a town called Charleston in Iowa which caused much confusion.

In 1846 the settler’s decided to find a name. Island City Harbor's website says that because of it’s sandy soil, William Hubble suggested the town be called "Sabulum" which is Latin for sand. A party was being held around the time the town name was being discussed, when a woman, supposed to be Miss Harriet Hudson, suggested the town be called Sabula as it was easier to pronounce and sounded more elegant, according History of Jackson County, Iowa, Volume 1 by James Whitcomb Ellis.

Sabula did not actually become an island until 1939. According to Wikipedia, in the 1930's, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed the lock and dam system. In 1939, Lock and Dam No. 13 between Clinton, IA and Fulton, IL was built which caused the bottomlands west of the town permanently flooded. With the Mississippi River east of the town, this created the "Island City." A levee was built around Sabula in 1957 for protection, according to Island City Harbor's website. This also allowed for the south sand pit to be turned into a boat harbor.

I would like to thank my mom Beth, her fiancé Matt, my brother Nolan and my wife Ellie for accompanying me to Sabula. We always have a blast on our trips and this one was no exception.

It's now time to introduce you to Sabula, Iowa, Iowa's Island City.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.