Long Beach resident Grace De Fries said her two children swim competitively, but must travel outside the community to hone their aquatic skills because the Recreation Center pool on Magnolia Boulevard is run-down and desperately in need of replacement.
Her children, Maggie Aroesty, 11, and Ryan Aroesty, 10, swim for the Tiger Sharks travel team of Long Beach Aquatics, and recently returned from a meet in the Bronx.
“They have been swimming about four years and they love it,” said De Fries. “They and their friends on the team have been qualifying with some of the best times in the Eastern region. We have Long Beach families with young kids who deserve the best pool they can get, certainly better than the 50-year-old pool at the Rec Center.”
Find out what's happening in Long Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
She said residents must travel to Freeport or Eisenhower Park to enjoy good pool facilities.
“We’re crying out for a quality pool,” she said. “It would help bring families to Long Beach and keep families in Long Beach, too.”
Find out what's happening in Long Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
De Fries and Neil McCarthy, co-president of Long Beach Aquatics Parents Association, have been meeting with city officials over the past six months to iron out plans for a new swimming pool.
They envision the pool to be built in a structure in the existing Rec Center parking lot, which overlooks the Reynolds Channel, and parking would be moved to the site of the existing Rec Center building. Eventually, they would also like the pool to be part of a multi-purpose building for other sports activities such as volleyball.
Currently, in addition to the pool, the Rec Center has a small, outdated weight room and cardio room.
“We have been meeting with people from the city for six months to get a plan together for the entire Rec Center,” said McCarthy, who added he would like to see built a gym, an exercise room with yoga classes, new locker rooms and showers.
“We need a better facility,” he said. “The community deserves locker rooms that they can take a shower in. It’s all about the children. We’re a beach community and swimming is important to a beach community. There would be pool lessons that kids could take.”
They said the construction costs are still being worked out with city officials. City Manger Charles Theofan said that while the city fully concedes that the Rec Center needs work, the city presently might be unable to afford to build a new facility.
“But there’s no reason that we can’t find the funds to rebuild the swimming pool,” Theofan added. “It may not happen today or tomorrow, but maybe in the not-too-distant future. We can do it very inexpensively. We can pay for the materials and have people on our staff do the work.”
City Councilman Len Torres, who has 10 years of experience on the city’s Recreation Commission, said that so many things are wrong with the current pool, such as broken tiles, pumps and ventilators, that the city can’t take a Band-Aid approach to fixing it.
“We saw the issue eventually hitting Long Beach very hard,” Torres said. “Eventually we will need a new facility, a new building.”
McCarthy said a new pool would be a nice attraction for the city.
“People are going out of town to swim because of the condition of our pool, which is not in good condition,” he said. “That pool has been let go for a long time. We have a 300-member swim team using it. It’s very run-down.
“The facility would help keep kids off the street and I’m sure the city will do its due diligence looking for money,” McCarthy continued. “When I was a kid I would go there Friday nights.”
De Fries added: “We’re trying to make sure the city recognizes that we deserve a great pool. I know the city has a lot of other things to worry about, but hopefully we can move ahead with this. If we can get a shovel in the ground by next year, we’d love it.”
