Despite money being included in the 2023 budget for its reopening, the Elgin City Council voted Wednesday keep Lords Park Family Aquatic Center closed for another year out of concern there wouldn’t be enough lifeguards to staff it.
The decision was approved with 6-3 vote. Council members Tish Powell, Rose Martinez and Corey Dixon opposed shuttering the facility for a fourth year, especially after east side residents launched a vocal campaign to reopen the pool this fall.
“I would rather see that pool be brought back sooner than later,” Dixon said.
The proposed 2023 budget, which is under review and expected to be approved by month’s end, included $230,000 to repair and replace pool equipment and refinish a slide in anticipation of a summer reopening.
Elgin Parks and Recreation Director Maria Cumpata, however, said she’d prefer not to spend the money if there was no guarantee they’d have enough lifeguards to man it.
They barely had enough staff to operate the Wing Park Family Aquatic Center and the indoor pool at the Edward Schock Centre of Elgin this summer, Cupata said. There were time when they had to cancel open swim hours due to not having enough lifeguards, she said.
“We can’t put a skeleton staff there,” Cumpata said.
The labor shortage is not limited to just Elgin, and many park districts and recreation departments in Illinois and around the country faced the same problem this year, she said.
With the decision to keep the pool closed for another year, city staff will use the time to develop a plan to attract lifeguards for the 2024 season and to get community input on whether the pool should remain in use or be converted for another use, like a splash pad.
The pool was closed in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and this year as a way to save money.
East side residents, fearing the three-year break in using the pool would make it easy for officials to close it permanently, began a campaign earlier this year to tell the council how important the facility was to that part of the city and to push for its reopening.
The lifeguard shortage, however, is a problem that can’t be ignored, Cupata said. Being a lifeguard was once a prestigious summer job but teens no longer see it that way, don’t want to be out in the sun all summer and worry about the responsibility it involves, she said.
Mayor Dave Kaptain said he could understand the problems being faced.
“(We’re) trying to put a short-term solution on a long-range problem,” he said. “The long-range problem is personnel. No matter what kind of money you throw at the pool … it can’t fix that problem so we have to address that.”
Were the pool to become a splash pad, lifeguards wouldn’t be needed. And were its use changed, it would still be an amenity for the area, which is something that needs to be made known to the public, Dixon said.
“We just want to find other options,” he said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
