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Politics & Government

Faithful Service at Colony Pool

Alan Hauser has been managing the faciilty for 22 years.

Alan Hauser's face is familiar to all Colony Pool members.

Hauser has been dependably managing the facility for 22 years and going strong. He can be heard several times throughout the day, making announcements to remind members of daily activities. He walks around the pool to manage staff and talk with members as he picks up stray objects such as sticks and rocks so children don't step on them with their bare feet. 

Simply put, he loves the pool.

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"This is a beautiful place and a lot of families and old timers stay with us through the years," Hauser says.

Hauser was born and raised in Elizabeth, married and settled in Mountainside where he currently resides, and came to manage Colony Pool in 1989. He has been at Colony ever since then.

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Alan stared at Colony by responding to a request from Paul Chaput, a tennis pro who worked with his wife, Kathy. Kathy was the head basketball coach at Chatham Township High School, and suggested that Chaput call her husband, since Colony Pool needed a manager. As a result, Alan Hauser left Mountainside Municipal Pool where he worked in the summers and came to Colony.

"Most people that run pools are teachers because of having their summers off," explains Hauser.

Currently, Hauser is the athletic director at Montville High School and has been there for 37 years. He first started at the school as a health and physical education teacher and taught students how to drive.

He has always been involved in sports. His three daughters were referred to as "gym rats" when they were smaller because they were being dragged to all kinds of games in high school.

The children originally learned to swim at Mountainside Municipal Pool and didn't come to Colony with their dad until they were able to work as lifeguards at 15 years old. Their summers were spent as full days there, as they went every day back and forth between the pool and recreation facility.

These were good memories for his daughter, Lauren.

"I miss it," she explains, "That was our growing up time before we worked full time here".

Lauren is still currently employed at Colony Pool as the assistant manager until she obtains a full time teaching position as a Physical Education teacher.

"Probably the two most important life skills you can teach your kids are swimming and driving. They're not going to drown and they're going to be safe in the car," Hauser says.

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