Fort Totten Pool to Remain Open This Summer

The City Council has restored funding that will allow the Fort Totten pool to remain open for the summer, state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, said.

Last month, the city’s Parks Department announced that it would have to close four city pools, including the one at Bayside’s Fort Totten, for the summer due to a lack of adequate funding.

But Braunstein said the Council has allocated enough money to allow the pool to open.

“As the only free pool in northeast Queens, the Fort Totten pool is a tremendous resourced to our community,” Braunstein said. “I am pleased that the New York City Council restored the funding necessary to ensure that families in my district are able to enjoy a full season at the Fort Totten pool again this year.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, D-Manhattan, said that all four pools slated to close – including Brooklyn’s Howard Pool, Manhattan’s Wagner Pool and Staten Island’s Faber Pool – will remain open this summer.

“Our swimming pools are vital community resources for New Yorkers to cool down when temperatures rise,” Quinn said.

Pool season kicked off on June 27 and runs through Labor Day weekend.