Kids & Family
Fort Totten Pool Could Close for Summer
Parks Department spokesman says Bayside pool is among four citywide that could close due to a lack of funding.
The city’s Parks Department could be forced to close four city pools, including one at Fort Totten, if the City Council is unable to come up with funds to keep them open, a spokesman for the agency said.
The City Council had previously restored funds for Fiscal Year 2013 that would allow all of the city’s pools to remain open for the summer.
But the city is currently lacking the adequate funds to operate the pools, Parks Spokesman Phil Abramson said.
“Unless the City Council restores the $1.5 million needed to operate the pools, we will be forced to close four pools and shorten the season for all pools by two weeks,” Abramson said.
The four pools that could close for the summer include Fort Totten, Brooklyn’s Howard Pool, Manhattan’s Wagner Pool and Staten Island’s Faber Pool.
The agency picked the four pools based on attendance figures, proximity to other pools, access to public transit and the location of the swimming sites relative to residential communities.
Bayside and city leaders said the closure of the pool would be of great detriment to the community.
“As the only free pool in northeast Queens, the Fort Totten poll is a tremendous resource to our community and, as such, the Parks Department should not annually propose its closure as a budget negotiating tactic,” state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, said. “Closing this pool would be an insult to the taxpayers of northeast Queens.
In a statement, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she expected that the Council would find the funds to ensure that the pools proposed for closure would remain open.
“[It] would prevent children, senior citizens, families and others from escaping summer’s heat in what has become a valuable community facility,” Bay Terrace Community Alliance President Warren Schreiber said of the proposal to close the pool. “The only other option would be a private pool that can cost up to $2,000 for the season.”
Pool season kicks off on June 27 and typically runs through Labor Day weekend.
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