HOW BAD ARE THE CITY POOLS?
Study planned to determine future of municipal facilities
TROY, N.Y. >> If the city is going to dip into its depleted coffers to reopen its two municipal swimming pools, Mayor Patrick Madden at least wants to be sure the money won’t be wasted.
With both he and the City Council under public pressure to restore funding for pools in South Troy and Knickerbocker Park, Madden plans to have engineering studies done at each facility to determine the extent of work required and whether it would make fiscal sense to have that work done.
“I would love to be able to open the pools,” Madden said Tuesday. “I don’t want to be known as the mayor who closed the pools, but I don’t want to be the mayor who kept them open when
they weren’t safe and a child dies.”
Funding for the pools was not included in the 2017 city budget, with Madden removing about $130,000 to staff the two facilities from his initial proposal, arguing then that they needed extensive repairs the city simply could not afford. Madden did, however, take $ 40,000 of that funding and redirected it for the city to use to help local community service organizations to fund youth programs and activities. While the council agreed to the closing as part of a final budget agreement, as well as removing the $40,000 in proposed funding for youth programs — several members sought to reconsider the decision after learning of an online petition drive that has to date garnered more than 550 signatures from past and present city residents.
The city brought in two companies last fall to look at the pools and estimate the cost to make them safe for the estimated 210 swimmers who used them daily last year. One of the companies refused to even give an estimate, officials said, while the other said it would cost at least $550,000 just to make needed repairs to
the filters and lining of each pool. That may be enough to open the pools for the sixweek season, but officials fear larger issues — particularly corrosion of the steel structure of both pools — bring into question the wisdom of making such a substantial investment.
“This is just another instance where the city failed to maintain its assets,” Madden said. “We need to maintain our assets better.”
Council President Carmella Mantello did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the mayor’s plan, but both she and fellow Republican Councilwoman Kimberly AsheMcPherson called on the mayor to dip into a pool of more than $2.2 million in federal funding awarded to the city through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program. That money is to be used in the neighborhoods where the pools are located — South Troy and Lansingburgh — according to the most-recent five-year plan the city was required to compile by the federal government, but that money was already dedicated to infrastructure repairs and addressing blighted properties in that plan.
“These are funds that would enable the city pools to be reopened and to have an important recreational opportunity be restored for so many city families this summer,” Ashe-McPherson said in a news release. “I call on the mayor and his administration to do the right thing and allocate funds to allow the city pools to be reopened,” But while Ashe-McPherson claimed the money was allocated without input from either the council or the public, Madden pointed out in an emailed response to her release obtained by The Record that both the overall five-year plan and supplemental annual plans are required by HUD to include public input and council approval. The council gave its unanimous approval to the 201617 plan at its May 5, 2016, meeting, and Madden said council members were again apprised of the plan during budget negotiations last fall. “[I]t is absolutely false that CDBG funds are expended without input from the council and/or the public, as you state,” Madden concluded in his reply. Any decisions on how to pay for work will wait, though, Madden said, until officials can determine both the extent and wisdom of fixing up the pools. He said he has already heard from groups and individuals interested in helping to pay for repairs or replacement, but fundraising efforts need top wait until city officials know what they would be raising moiney for.
“I think there would be interest in raising funds if it’s determined the pools can be fixed,” he said.
Supporters of the pools, both among council members and the public, said the pools serve a valuable purpose during the summer and feared their closing could lead to a rise in street crime and to children looking at more dangerous swimming options, like the Hudson River, the Poestenkill or the reservoir in Frear Park.