{"id":184350,"date":"2025-08-29T10:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184350\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T10:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:44:18","slug":"dallas-discussed-closing-its-9-community-pools-a-decade-ago-its-part-of-a-bigger-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184350\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas discussed closing its 9 community pools a decade ago. It\u2019s part of a bigger plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Closing Dallas\u2019 nine aging community pools<\/a> has been in the works for a decade. <\/p>\n

Decommissioning the city\u2019s nine community pools was part of the city\u2019s 2015 aquatic master plan, which called for developing newer aquatic facilities to replace the functionally obsolete community pools. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity pools were failing and we had to adapt,\u201d said Timothy Dickey, District 6 parks and recreation board member from West Dallas. \u201cIn the 2015 master plan, they laid out a plan to create these new regional aquatic centers and splash grounds, and to move away from the community pools as the main way we do aquatics in Dallas.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The shift was funded mainly through the 2017 bond program<\/a>, which allocated $262 million for parks and recreation. Residents, Dickey said, want to keep their community pools.<\/p>\n

Dickey said that building one community pool currently costs about $5 million. Building nine new community pools would cost approximately $60 million, accounting for inflation.<\/p>\n

While the city waits for an update to its Aquatic Master Plan, expected this fall to provide more guidance on community preferences and replacement options for community pools, Raul Robles, aquatic superintendent, said some have already begun to develop plans.<\/p>\n

New pools <\/p>\n

In 2024, residents approved a nearly $1.3 billion<\/a> bond package that included funding for three pools: one to replace the current Jaycee Zaragoza pool in West Dallas, one to repair the current Pleasant Oaks pool in Pleasant Grove and one at Singing Hills in southern Dallas.<\/p>\n

The Jaycee Zaragoza Pool in District 6 received approximately $4.5 million to build its new pool<\/a>, replacing the facility built in 1974. During the 2025 season, this community pool was the third busiest, with 2,804 visitors. In 2014, the pool had a similar number of visitors: 2,416.<\/p>\n

Pleasant Oaks pool received approximately $1 million<\/a> from the 2024 bond. Located in District 5, the pool was built in 1958. This season, 4,317 people visited the facility, compared with 7,775 people in 2014.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s 2024 bond program dashboard, the new pool and repairs are estimated to be completed by April 2027.<\/p>\n

District 8 allocated about $4 million<\/a> for the construction of a new aquatic center in the Singing Hills Recreation Center, which was proposed during the 2015 master plan update.<\/a><\/p>\n

District 4 council member Maxie Johnson said during a City Council briefing Aug. 20 that he wanted to use his discretionary funds to build a community pool in his district. <\/p>\n

Johnson did not elaborate on details about the pool. He did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would say to my fellow citizens of Dallas is, if you want community pools, get involved, call your park board member and your council member and have input,\u201d Dickey said. \u201cSay, \u2018I want the new aquatic master plan to have more community pools.\u2019 Start to lobby for them now, and then lobby for them in the bond.\u201d <\/p>\n

What\u2019s next <\/p>\n

The parks and recreation board is expected to continue discussing this year\u2019s budget process, with a final decision on the nine community pools likely to be made in the coming months. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Until then, families are left uncertain whether their legacy pool will reopen next summer \u2014 or whether this season may have been the last. <\/p>\n

Last week, the Dallas Park and Recreation Board discussed plans to decommission its nine community pools across the city. No decision was made, but the option of closing three pools per year or all at once was on the table.<\/p>\n

Grauwyler Pool, located in the central part of town, the Glendale Pool in the south and the Walnut Hill Pool in the north are the top three candidates for decommissioning, based on criteria including aging infrastructure, attendance numbers, proximity to other facilities, and whether the site has a different affinity program on campus.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Besides the nine community pools, the city operates nine aquatic centers, which include a variety of play features such as lazy rivers, toddler pools and open swimming pools. The department also operates 17 spraygrounds, an indoor pool and a beach water park. <\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Map of Dallas aquatic centers, pools and spraygrounds presented to Dallas City Council Brief on Aug. 20.<\/p>\n

City of Dallas<\/p>\n

All the other city aquatic features will be open to the public in the summer 2026. <\/p>\n

Community needs <\/p>\n

An online petition, requesting city officials to \u201cStop Dallas from closing all community pools<\/a>.\u201d As of Aug. 27, the petition had 125 signatures. <\/p>\n

Some board members supported closing them all now, while others think it will disproportionately affect the Black and brown communities, as the majority of pools are south of Interstate 30. <\/p>\n

\u201cShould we rip off the Band-Aid all at once and let it bleed and get the herd out and then move forward with \u2018this is what we\u2019re going to plan for these sites,\u2019\u201d said Daniel Wood, park board member for District 7 in southern Dallas. <\/p>\n

Wood said it\u2019s a painful decision and hard when it\u2019s \u201cyour neighborhood pool.\u201d However, keeping the pools open is getting harder due to the aging facilities, he said, and some residents don\u2019t want to take their kids there because of the obsolete equipment. <\/p>\n

In 2014, about 39,778 people visited the nine community pools. This year, there were 21,486 visitors. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we continually go through this and put ourselves through this every year?\u201d Wood said. \u201cLet\u2019s just go through it. It\u2019s painful, but we have to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n

For others, these community pools have been low-cost places to hang out in the summer and keep kids entertained, especially in middle- and low-income neighborhoods, said JR Huerta, vice chair for the board who represents District 1 in southwest Dallas. <\/p>\n

\"Lifeguard<\/p>\n

Lifeguard Joshua Acosta, 17, looks over the empty Glendale swimming pool in the east Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas on Monday, July 29, 2019. (Lynda M. Gonzalez\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/p>\n

Lynda M. Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Huerta said the needs of neighborhoods in other parts of the city might be different, such as those who have their own pools or other private activities, but keeping the Martin Weiss Pool is important for his district. <\/p>\n

The Martin Weiss Pool is one of the most well-attended pools in District 4, with 5,092 visitors this year, compared to Glendale Pool, which saw 1,042 visitors this year. <\/p>\n

Huerta prefers to stick to the decommissioning plan, which phases the closures over three years, and hopes his district\u2019s pools are among the last to be shut down. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting duct tape on this pool to keep it going. We really are. The staff is doing an amazing job keeping it going. And just because [council member] Chad [West] and I have been wholehearted by keeping it open and doing whatever we have to do.\u201d Huerta said. \u201cI will vote no to shut them all down at one time, because it will hurt my community for sure.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Closing Dallas\u2019 nine aging community pools has been in the works for a decade. Decommissioning the city\u2019s nine…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14840,14841,21678,50,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-184350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-city-hall","12":"tag-equity","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-water"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115111648924693350","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}