Streamwood pool may have seen last lap

The age of Aquarius could be over for the Streamwood Park District.

The park board is expected to vote tonight on whether to give its aging Aquarius pool one more reprieve or close it for good before summer.

With its dwindling use, in-the-red operating budget and an array of needed repairs and safety problems, park district staff members will recommend tonight that the outdoor pool be shut down.

Dawn Banks, the district's superintendent of parks and planning, said the pool has leaks and cracks, a floor that's deteriorating and gutter that has structural steel exposed, among many other maintenance problems and repair needs.

The pool lost $77,000 last summer and only 189 people held season passes, Banks said. What money the pool did bring in didn't even cover the costs of paying for lifeguards, she said.

Banks said bringing the pool up to current codes would cost into the millions.

And it doesn't have the "neat and fun" water park features that draw more kids these days.

Commissioner Bill Wright said the pool has outlived its usefulness, "bleeds money" and could be a liability for the district.

"I've not found a compelling argument for it to remain," Wright said. "There hasn't been one made to me that stands up more than the safety of the people using it."

Still, last year the board voted 3-2 to keep the pool, which opened in the mid-1970s, running for another season.

Commissioners didn't want to lose one of their summer recreational offerings and wanted to give the Roselle Racers one more season to use the pool before the new Roselle pool opens in 2008.

Tonight's park board meeting begins at 7 at Park Place Recreational Center, 550 S. Park Blvd.