Elgin residents show support for reopening Lords Park pool

About 50 residents attended Wednesday's Elgin City Council meeting to urge the city to reopen the Lords Park pool next year.

While there was nothing on the council agenda about the issue, the show of support followed calls by local groups on social media to get out ahead of a potential permanent closing before it was too late.

Eight people took to the podium during public comment.

"Going to the neighborhood pool is a rite of summer for children," Candy Renard said. "Give Elgin's east side children an opportunity to swim, to cool off, to play in a safe outdoor environment."

Terry Gabel of Friends of Lords Park Zoo, who helped organize the turnout, said he wanted the council to know how passionately the community feels about the issue before discussions get too far along.

"The 2023 budget process has begun," he said. "The pool has been closed for three long, hot and humid summers."

Gabel said the group understands staffing is an issue with the tight labor market but said there had to be a way to work that out.

"Perhaps all three pools can be creatively staffed," he said. "After all, we are one city, and, sometimes, temporary pain should be shared. The people who use this pool have certainly assumed more than their share of the burden by having this pool closed for two years longer than the one in Wing Park."

Paul Bednar of the Gifford Park Association said that the diverse east side neighborhoods that surround Lords Park have a lot of low-income households that need to be considered.

"We need to reach out and make sure that those people, all residents of Elgin, are served, not just the people that have the means to drive in a carpool during the day with a mom that doesn't work," he said.

The council did not discuss the pool during the meeting. But Mayor David Kaptain said afterward that he appreciated the concern of the residents.

"This stuff was kind of premature because it's not up for discussion yet," he said. "It will be a budget issue that we'll talk about sometime in the late fall."

A public master plan meeting in June showed reopening the pool was one of residents' top three wish list items. The city will have another public input session in the fall.

"There is no plan to do this right now, and we've had no discussions, other than really minor discussions last winter," Kaptain said. "Maybe it's an opportunity for people to just take a look and say, 'Well, maybe we want to make things a little better.'"

Gabel said the outcome will be about more than a place to swim.

"In some respects, this is about so much more than a swimming pool," Gabel said. "It is also about how the city continues to support its diverse neighborhoods, demonstrates its commitment to long-term amenities and shows how it values input from its residents."