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Kids are having a good time at Youngstown’s North Side Pool
YOUNGSTOWN
With a near-record rainy June, kids have had a limited time to enjoy the city’s North Side Pool this summer.
And the pool closes Aug. 12, so there isn’t a lot more time left.
Though that’s a disappointment to the kids, they say they’re having a great time at the pool.
“This is my first year coming here and I’ve come here pretty much every day in July,” said Mark Giesey, a 12-year-old North Side resident. “I love that you can swim for $1 and play with your friends.”
Gina Morris, a 17-year-old Campbell resident, said, “It’s really cool. I know a lot of people and we come together. It’s a great bonding experience, and for $1, it’s well worth it.”
The pool, on Belmont Avenue, is normally open from mid-June to mid-August. It closes in the middle of August because that’s when most of the lifeguards, many of whom are college students, return to school, said Robert Burke, the city’s park and recreation director.
This year, the city had more trouble than usual getting lifeguards, he said. The goal is to have 10 to 15, Burke said. This season, the city had seven lifeguards, forcing it to close on Sunday, which is the slowest day for the pool, he said.
The pool is open from 1 to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
It’s $1 for those under the age of 18 and $2 for adults.
“It’s a community service we’re providing for people to cool off and enjoy themselves,” Burke said. “Most people at the pool are from the city. But we get people from Liberty and Girard, and we’ve had people from New Castle, [Pa.] use the pool.”
Bryant Thigpen, who lives on the city’s North Side, takes his son and three of his grandchildren to the pool.
“It was rainy in June, but in July, the weather has been great and we’ve been up here quite a bit,” he said. “The pool is really nice. It is so much better than when I was coming here as a kid. It’s an excellent set-up. They’ve sectioned off the kids pool from the adult part. It makes it so much easier to watch the younger kids. There isn’t a deep end in the kids pool. It’s much safer and it’s nice how they designed it.”
In the spring of 2006, the city demolished the former North Side Pool with a plan to build a new one that summer. But changes to the project caused delays and the pool didn’t open until the summer of 2007.
While the city had six public pools years ago, North Side is the only one that remains.