The Park District board, meeting as a committee of the whole this week, made slight changes but otherwise responded favorably to an architect’s proposal for reconstructing the Pioneer Park swimming pool.
“I think it’s an outstanding plan,” said Michael Gilfillan, a park district commissioner. “It’s been organized very well.”
However, parks commissioners Wednesday night expressed concerns about the amount of deck space around the pool and the size of the zero-depth pool area at the swim complex, on Fernandez Avenue and Grove Street.
“I’m concerned we’re a little skinny on deck space on the north side,” Gilfillan said. “Some people, like myself, just jump in the water when they get too warm and then go back on the deck.”
The reconstructed main pool would be smaller than the present pool–10,730 square feet down from 11,250 square feet–but the wading pool would be enlarged by 10 percent, and a separate, 12 1/2-foot-deep diving pool would be constructed. Also, the bath house and locker rooms would be renovated.
The plan, by architects Pollock, Holzrichter and Nicholas Ltd. of Wheaton, is to be discussed at the Jan. 13 parks board meeting.
If suggested changes are made to the board’s satisfaction and the plan is approved, the project would go out for bids May 7.
