Silver Lake Park pool gets another year – Post Bulletin

ROCHESTER — A move to keep

Silver Lake Park’s outdoor swimming pool open

for at least one more summer was approved Monday.

The Rochester City Council voted unanimously to commit $100,000 to reopening the pool after it was originally slated to be replaced with a splash pad this summer.

“The public is highly engaged with this issue, and we want the public to know we are actively in the process of moving toward saving the Silver Lake pool,” council member Norman Wahl said. “We will be given more information and dollar figures in the weeks ahead.”

The decision is the latest in a series of annual efforts to postpone the closing of the aging pool as the city plans to open a new aquatics facility in Soldiers Memorial Field Park by June 1.

The anticipated cost of opening the Silver Lake pool for another summer will come from the council’s $1 million contingency fund, leaving $900,000 for future spending.

With maintaining use of the pool, the council has also asked Parks and Recreation staff to study options for building a new park pool, which has been preliminarily estimated to cost $4 million, if a new bath house is included.

If built, the pool has been proposed as an eight-lane, 25-yard pool to be used primarily for swimming lessons and to support community groups that have traditionally relied on the Silver Lake pool.

The council will review options at a future meeting.

The pool reopening decision came after the council discussed a

proposed first phase of planned park upgrades

, which also include upgrades to the skate park, the creation of a new gathering site along the river and renovation of the park’s west playground.

While the splash pad option has been put on hold until after the pool season closes, the other three aspects of the planned park improvements are expected to move forward.

The council currently has $4 million dedicated to the park upgrades, with $1.5 million dedicated to the splash pad project and other funds already spent on design.

The proposal presented on March 7 also earmarked at least $500,000 for the playground, $350,000 for the skate park and $100,000 for the gathering space.

With council approval to move toward final design and bidding on those three projects, city staff is also working to secure grant funding for each project.