JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Many of the city’s pools have been closed to start the summer, but there might be some hope ahead.
Five more pools are set to reopen by the end of July.
On Thursday, Mayor Donna Deegan and the head of the parks department spoke about the pool problems and the steps they are taking to solve them.
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The pool at the Robert Kennedy Community Center in Springfield is still closed but sometime this month the gates will be unlocked, and kids will be allowed to swim.
For Melvin Wilson who lives across the street and whose grandchildren would use the pool, it’s a little late.
“Don’t mean a whole lot because they should have done it by now,” Wilson said.
Another pool in the Sans Souci neighborhood on the Southside is set to open next week but there is still a lot of work to do.
Even some of the pools that are supposed to be open right now aren’t always open. At Julius Guinyard Pool in Springfield, lots of children were lined up to go in on Thursday but were not allowed because the manager did not show up. One camp counselor who brings kids to local pools said it happens all the time.
“All the pools that we’ve gone to are phenomenal,” said summer camp counselor Don Justice. “It’s just that they have a tendency to be closed because of chlorine pH balance, not enough lifeguards, or whatever the case may be. It’s always something.”
Mayor Deegan said she met with the city’s parks director to talk about the problems and they are coming up with some plans.
MORE: Deegan on closed city pools: ‘Important thing for our community to have those swimming pools’
“We do have, you know, 17 pools that are open right now hopefully we’ll have five more that will be open in the next couple of weeks,” Deegan said. “And what we’re looking to do is just a couple of things short term that may be able to alleviate the situation. We talked over a number of different solutions this afternoon. And I think that one of the things we’re talking about is seeing if we can create some sort of partnership with some of the nonprofits maybe to see if we can find a way to get kids transported to some pools that are open, that may not have a pool available to them right now. That’s one of the things that we can do.”
So while not every city pool will be open this season the city hopes to start working on the problem for next year by trying to recruit more lifeguards now and get them certified so they can make a splash next season.
Pool locations open to the public as of 7/5/23:
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Andrew Jackson High School
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Cecil Aquatic Center
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Fletcher High School
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Ft. Caroline Pool
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Grand Park Pool
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Harts Road Park Pool
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Julius Guinyard Pool
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Lakeshore Middle School
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Mandarin High School
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Oceanway Park Pool
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Ribault High School
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Riverside High School
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Samuel Wolfson High School
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Sandalwood High School
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Thomas Jefferson Pool
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Westside (Forrest) High School
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Woodland Acres Pool
Pool locations expected to be opened by mid-July 2023:
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Baldwin Middle/High School
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Robert Kennedy Pool
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San Souci Pool (Adolph Wurn Park)
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Emmett Reed Pool
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Terry Parker High School
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