Elgin council commits to reopening Lords Park pool next summer and will spend up to $500K on repairs

Lords Park Family Aquatic Center in Elgin will reopen next summer, but its future beyond that isn’t guaranteed.

The Elgin City Council voted Wednesday to spend up to $500,000 to make the necessary repairs for the pool to be used in 2024 but classified the move as an “experiment” that’s contingent, in part, on the Elgin Parks and Recreation Department finding enough lifeguards to staff it.

Parks and Rec Executive Director Maria Cumpata said a decision was needed because some expensive repairs must be done this fall if the facility is going to open next summer. They also will need to add a full-time aquatics supervisor and 55 lifeguards to the 2024 budget, she said.

If there aren’t enough lifeguards, they may have to limit the days or hours in which Lords Park and the Wing Park aquatic centers are open in order to ensure they have enough employees at both, Cumpata said.

Lord Park pool has been closed since 2020, initially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and then later as a cost-saving measure. It did not reopen this year because they did not have enough lifeguards.

Council members have been considering a proposal to convert the pool into some other type of water feature, like a splash pad, which would would require less staffing and maintenance but some residents have been vocal in wanting the pool back in use.

“This is going to be a hard one,” Councilwoman Rose Martinez said before the vote. “But I think this is something that has been pretty contentious, and people are saying this is what they want. Let’s do it and see what happens.”

The Parks and Recreation Department has been gathering community input on the issue through public meetings and a 17-question survey, available in both English and Spanish.

According to survey results, 99% of respondents agreed that aquatic facilities and programs are important to Elgin, parks and recreation Assistant Director Barb Keselica said. A total of 63% wanted to keep the pool open while 37% favored a different kind of aquatic facility, she said.

Staffing a pool remains a big issue for Elgin and other communities. A lifeguard shortage has resulted in more than 100,000 community pools closing or reducing their hours, Mayor Dave Kaptain said.

“It’s not just Elgin. It’s not because we’re not trying. It’s not because we’re not paying them,” he said. “It’s a nationwide problem. If you can’t fix that problem, you’re never going to fix the rest of it.”

The vote to reopen the pool was unanimous. Next year, admission for both Lords Park and Wing Park pools will be $10 for residents and $12 for nonresidents, a $2 increase from this year.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.