Susan Sookram sat in the hot tub of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Fitness Center. She brought her book to settle into — an anthology containing the first three Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books — with the whole tub to herself.
But up until recently, this post-workout ritual was put on pause.
“I think I did come a little bit less without that motivating thought of taking a relaxing dip afterwards,” Sookram said.
Since July, the hot tub in Bethel’s fitness center had been out of commission. There was an issue with its pump. And, like with any beloved relative – people have been calling, sending Facebook messages, and stopping by in person for months to ask if it was getting better.
Bethel Parks and Recreation Department staff said that they even got a request from a community member to publicly share the tracking information on the missing part so that everyone could keep tabs on it. Then, after four months, it was finally fixed.
“It was sort of to very quiet fanfare, and I felt like it deserved more of a community-wide announcement and/or celebration,” Sookram said.
David Chakuchin, the facilities manager at the fitness center, said that he didn’t know the hot tub outage would be that big of a deal.
“It was kind of surprising how people would be, like, getting upset,” Chakuchin said. “Like, chill. It's just a hot tub.”
In the months since the hot tub has been down, the rumors have flown around town about what had gone wrong. KYUK Multimedia Department’s MaryCait Dolan asked Chakuchin about some of them during our interview.
“Wasn't it also, like, once the part came in, there had to be someone to, like, crawl into the inner workings of the hot tub too?” Dolan asked. “I don't know where I heard that.”
Chakuchin smiled.
“No, no one had to crawl,” Chakuchin said, laughing.
In actuality, what happened is a classic tale in rural Alaska. The broken part first had to be identified and its nearly $10,000 price tag paid for. Then it had to be shipped to Bethel from the lower 48, which takes much longer than normal shipping times. And then there were bigger problems to solve.
“Typhoon Halong hit, and then that, like, just delayed it another, like, two or three weeks, maybe,” Chakuchin said.
This is the first time in the pool’s 11 year history that it has needed major maintenance.
“In the future, I don't think it's going to be that hard because we kind of learned a lot of lessons,” Chakuchin said.
Chakuchin said that it was surprising to hear how much people cared about the hot tub.
Mac Nowicki is a hot tub regular and admitted that he fell into the party of pushier hot tub inquirers.
“I did for, I don’t know, like two months, [a] pilgrimage asking,” Nowicki said. “They displayed little piece of paper which says ‘it’s on the way’. Then they display another piece of paper which says ‘we should fix it,’ and then — finally.”
Now on the other side, Nowicki said that it’s been nice to have the space for his muscles and spine to relax. He likes to come at least twice a week.
Now that it’s back open, the hot tub and greater fitness center have been busy. After Typhoon Halong displaced many residents of coastal communities to Bethel, the fitness center is offering its showers and facilities, including the hot tub, to evacuees.
Chakuchin said that there are a lot of people using the facilities. Bethel is the only community in the Y-K Delta to have a pool and hot tub. Bethel Life Savers also sponsors free snacks and drinks for impacted families.
“There's a lot, a lot of families come in, and it's, it's nice, nice to see it's more busy for us, but it is nice that they do have a place to come in,” Chakuchin said.
On Friday and Monday nights, community members gather in the hot tub before starting a pickup game of water polo.
“If we're one or two people shy of two teams, we have recruited people that never played before from just chilling in the hot tub,” Scott said.
That’s water polo regular Sundi Scott. Scott said that the moments before jumping in the pool to play are particularly important.
“It gives us time to socialize before we get really competitive with each other,” Scott said.
Scott said that during the hot tub’s outage, participation numbers suffered. But now there have been enough people for two teams and time to laugh and relax against the jets.
For water polo regular and KYUK’s outgoing news director Sage Smiley, it’s her last night in town before moving away.
“I wanted to spend my last night with the community,” Smiley said. “And the way you do that on a Friday night in Bethel, at least for me, is by playing water polo and sitting in the hot tub.”
The fitness center’s Equitable Access Program offers assistance to make memberships accessible for all families interested. For more information, visit the Y-K Fitness Center’s website.
Pickup water polo is held on Monday and Friday evenings, beginning in the hot tub at 7:00 p.m. before playing between 7:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
