Youngstown will demolish Borts Pool

By David Skolnick | October 21, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

Area will be filled in, turned into green space

YOUNGSTOWN

Borts Pool, last used in 2008, will be demolished — along with bleachers, the bathhouse, steps and fencing — filled in, and turned into green space.

The city’s street department will start the demo work on either Oct. 30 or 31, said Sean McKinney, buildings and grounds commissioner. It should take about two weeks for the demolition and to fill in the location, he said.

The West Side location has quickly deteriorated since it was last used as a pool in 2008.

The pool on Belle Vista Avenue is covered in graffiti, and “lots of vandalism,” said Bob Burke, the city’s parks and recreation director.

“It’s too cost-prohibitive to repair the pool,” said Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, who represents that area.

“It was leaking tens of thousands of gallons of water before it had to be shut down. We’re removing the blight by demolishing the pool and bleachers, and then filling it in.”

A portion of the bathhouse may be salvageable, he said.

Ray and Burke will discuss options to improve the location.

“There’s no multipurpose park space on the city’s West Side,” Ray said.

Among the possibilities is a dog park, a walking track, improvements to the playground, splash pads and a pavilion area for rent, Ray and Burke said.

The city will start writing grants for the area in the coming months with the hope that money could arrive in time for improvements to be made next summer, Burke said.

The city filled Borts Pool with water in 2009, but never opened it because of financial problems Youngstown was experiencing at the time.

In 2008, the last year it was opened, Borts had about 4,300 swimmers compared with about 12,500 at the North Side Pool on Belmont Avenue.

During its final years, Borts was plagued with problems.

It closed 45 minutes after it opened in 2008 because a back flow pump broke.

It was shut down for 22 days in the midst of a heat wave in late July 2006 when it was the only city-run pool in Youngstown because of problems with another pump.