When West New York Mayor Albio Sires and the current Board of Commissioners took office in 1995, they feared they would have to close the town’s pool complex on 60th Street right below Boulevard East because of the disrepair that the complex was in.
“It was in really pathetic shape,” said Sires.
Luckily, the town’s residents volunteered to clean up the complex, at least enough to have it open that year. Since then, the board has been renovating the complex a little more each year.
This year’s $360,000 renovation, funded by a county Community Development Grant, has completed the total renovation that the pool has undergone since 1995.
The money was used to build a new wading pool that ranges from one foot to three feet deep for young children and to make both pools completely handicapped accessible, adding two elevators that can be used to lower people in wheelchairs in and out of the pool.
A little more each year
The pool complex, which originally opened in 1978 with only one pool, has seen many changes over the years. The lower deck, where the wading pool is now, opened 10 years later. However, it was closed again seven years ago.
The wading pool replaced a diving tank that had been closed for at least seven years.
“Because the pool was so deep and built on a cliff, the bottom just fell right out,” said Sires.
However, the lower deck reopened for the summer with a wading pool whose deepest section is only 3 feet deep. “Now we have regained all of this deck space,” said Commissioner Sal Vega, adding that although the pool was closed, people could still use the deck for sunbathing. “When the pool wasn’t open, no one really came back here because there was no access to the pool.”
Since the first year of renovations, the complex has received new locker rooms, a new filter and drainage system, a new retainer wall and fencing.
“Every year we did a little more,” said Sires, who said that this year’s renovations included safety padding around both pools and on the pool floors.
Daily use
Although the pool complex only has about 50 seasonal members, Director of Recreational Programs Dennis DeSocio said that the pool services about 500 people daily.
Besides the residents who prefer to pay on a day-to-day basis, the pool is also used by the recreation and senior citizen programs run in West New York, Guttenberg and Weehawken.
“The kids are going to the pool full-time,” said DeSocio. He noted that besides the kids from the town recreation program and early childhood education program using the pool, there are also 16 soccer teams and 20 baseball teams in town that might need it.
“We tried to incorporate the pool into all of the town’s school and recreation programs,” said Sires.
Senior citizens can enter the pool free each day. The pool also has a senior hour in the morning so senior citizens can swim in the pool without being splashed by kids.
The pool is open to the public during the week from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is open from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. for senior citizens and from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. for recreation programs.
Non-members must pay a $5 fee on weekdays and $6 fee on weekends to enter the complex when it is open to the public.
Non-residents can pay $10 during the week and $12 on weekends.