Brownsville Rec. Center closing pool for badly-needed repairs New ...

BY ALEX ROBINSON

Brownsville Recreation Center swimmers are up in arms over the six-month closing of the facility?s pool to make badly-needed repairs -starting in August.

Parks Department officials put up a sign on the door of the Linden Blvd. center earlier this week that repairs will start in the fall, but that the pool would be closed starting Aug. 4 at the height of swimming season.

?The whole pool needs to be fixed, but (that) just give us three more weeks,? said Joan Revan, 75, who has been swimming at the pool for more than 25 years. ?At least give us ?til the end of summer.?

Mold and mildew have formed on the walls around the pool since the ventilation system broke years ago. The only source of ventilation the pool currently has is a rusty fan.

Light fixtures and doors are rusted and tiles are missing from the floor. It is not uncommon for paint chips and pieces of plaster to fall from the ceiling onto the heads of swimmers, they said.

The Parks Dept. sign suggested swimmers to use the pool at the St. John?s Recreation Center ? which is more than two miles away.

Swimmers were in disbelief about the closing of the Brownsville pool while kids were still out of school.

?They should wait until September for kids to go back to school,? said Marge Flemmings, who has been swimming at the pool every day for more than a year.

?Kids need this in the summer. Where else are they going to go?

?The city doesn?t care about this neighborhood,? Flemmings said. ?If they hadn?t neglected the pool for so long, it wouldn?t need to shut down for so long to renovate.?

The pool fell into disrepair since its last major reconstruction in 1996.

A supervisor at the center said city officials had promised repairs would begin earlier in the year after making inspections, but did not follow up at the time.

?That pool is a disaster,? said swimmer Louis Wilkinson, 73. ?It definitely needs an overhaul, without a doubt.?

Parks Department officials have budgeted $1.49 million to put a new ventilation system in the pool area, said an agency spokesperson, who refused to say why the pool was closing a month before repairs begin and in the summer.

Some swimmers were still skeptical they?ll see the improvements they?ve been promised for the pool.

?I?ll believe it when I see it,? said Wilkinson.

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Source: http://www.newyorksportnews.com/new-york-sports-news/brownsville-rec-center-closing-pool-for-badly-needed-repairs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=brownsville-rec-center-closing-pool-for-badly-needed-repairs

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