Streamwood park board closes Aquarius pool
Park district officials have finally run out of fingers to plug all the leaks at Aquarius Pool.
The park board voted 4-1 Tuesday in favor of permanently closing the Streamwood facility, where the problems are growing and the attendance is not.
"We've been trying to stop the bleeding," Director Dennis Stein said. "But we can't even afford the repairs to bring it into code."
According to a presentation made to the board by park district staff members, the revenue generated at Aquarius doesn't even cover the workers' salaries.
Figures show the pool lost $77,000 last summer, and multiple problems caused the park district to spend more than the $12,000 cap it placed on unexpected expenditures.
A recent inspection of Aquarius, which dates back to the mid-1970s, revealed an array of safety hazards and code violations from cracks, leaks, crumbling infrastructure and mechanical failures.
"For the reason of safety alone we have to close it," President Tom Keating said.
The lone dissenter was Commissioner Rich Janiec, who said he wants a second inspection. But Stein said the park district doesn't need to pay a consultant $5,000 to tell them what they've known for 10 years.
The board granted the pool one final reprieve last year, in part to give the Roselle Racers one more season until the new Kemmerling Park pool in Roselle opens in 2008. The swim team rented Aquarius for $3,500, providing close to 20 percent of the pool's total revenue.
"There were days we went into Aquarius and the pump would be broken or the heater wouldn't be working," said Racers head coach Jacki Hodgdon. "It was rather dirty at times, but we would've been in trouble without a pool to support us. I'm saddened to hear they're closing."
Attendance was 6,909 this summer, down nearly 3,700 people from 2005. Only 189 people held season passes, half a percent of the town's population.
Stein says closing Aquarius doesn't leave Streamwood high and dry.
The more modern, 11-year-old indoor pool at Park Place Family Recreation Center has waterslides and a lazy river.
Residents can use Hanover Park's Seafari Springs Aquatic Center at resident rates through an intergovernmental agreement between park districts. And there are five public outdoor water park facilities within a five-mile radius, Stein said.
"We feel it would be poor stewardship of tax money to keep Aquarius open or duplicate a facility that you can easily get to when we have other needs," Stein said.
But closing won't be cheap.
Stein estimates it will take $100,000, of which $25,000 has already been set aside, to demolish the pool and get the site to blend in with the surrounding tennis and basketball courts, playground and football field.
Considering Aquarius lost more than $110,000 over the last two summers, park district officials call it a bargain.