Changes coming to the Big Pool

GARDEN CITY — The Garden City City Commission unanimously approved a long-term community input process for the future of the Big Pool. The process will gather input from community members and other locals to help plan what will happen with the 96-year old pool. The pool is known as the world’s largest outdoor concrete municipal swimming pool.

The changes will be coming after the 2019 season according to Assistant City Manager Jennifer Cunningham. Cunningham has been working on figuring out the total costs and figures that it takes to run and maintain the pool. Cunningham figured out that last summer the pool cost approximately $3,337 per day in utilities over 130-plus days. $1,019 of that $3,337 number paid for the 200,000 gallons the pool loses daily. After all of the other expenses were tabulated, it costed over $780,000 to maintain the pool in 2018. She said that the total revenue was approximately $91,000.

The city will begin to reach out to residents to get their input on what they want done with the pool. The 2019 season will go on just as the 2018 season did, so don’t expect any changes coming that quickly. After the city gathers input, then they will approach the topic at the March 19 city commission meeting. Cunningham will present a written report at that March meeting. The commission will make the final decision for the future of the pool on April 2.