Living in Yuma during summer, one of the few things that can bring relief on a very hot day is a swimming pool.
For those not lucky enough to have one in their backyard, the next best option is a public pool.
The city of Yuma currently has four public pools, but one, Kennedy Pool, has been closed for more than six years. The pool closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained shut ever since.
At the most recent Yuma City Council meeting on Feb. 4, a packed room of community members, including parents and swimmers from a local youth swim team called the Yuma Heat, spoke out about the pool’s continued closure.
Several young teens from the swim team addressed the council during the public comment portion of the meeting, asking city leaders to reevaluate the future of Kennedy Pool in hopes of improving and reopening it.
“While I understand that rebuilding Kennedy would be costly, I think it’s worth the price. A supervised neighborhood pool would greatly benefit the residents by giving residents a place to swim in the summer and take swim lessons,” said a Yuma teen at the city council meeting.
One of the speakers was Henry Valenzuela, who is currently running for Yuma City Council. He told the council the community has been asking for action for years and said nothing has been done to address the future of the pool.
“We made it clear that we want to save Kennedy Pool, we made it clear over the last several years, we made clear more recently and that’s what we want. And what we’ve been told is that what we really want is a launching pad for micro rockets way on the south side of town, an innovation center, and a fancy building where we can buy bus tickets and train tickets and what we want is a pool. We can come together and we can save Kennedy Pool,” said Valenzuela.
Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls thanked everyone who spoke at the meeting. He said no immediate action would be taken, but the feedback would be considered and discussed in May, when the city plans to review capital improvement projects for next year.
Nicholls, who is running for a fourth term on the council, took to social media to explain some of the history of Kennedy Pool. He also addressed the current city council candidate who accused the council of doing nothing. In the post he said the city has explored improvement plans and conducted evaluations in the past, but many of those efforts fell short because of high costs.
“Even though it is closed now due to high costs, Kennedy Pool will make great memories again as the city implements the Parks and Recreation Master Plan,” Nicholls said in a social media post.
The mayor broke down the costs, saying Kennedy Pool was typically open only two months out of the year and cost about $84,000 in labor and $100,000 in maintenance, nearly $200,000 to operate and attendance was low. He said that after COVID-19, funds previously used for Kennedy Pool were reallocated to Valley Aquatic Center to install a heating system, allowing children to use the pool during the colder months.
Nicholls also noted the pool’s 60-year-old piping system needs to be completely replaced and that the pool and facility require major repairs.
According to the mayor, the Parks and Recreation Department currently lists Kennedy Pool as an improvement project, with $2.5 million identified to address aquatic needs, including the pool. However, he said a final approach has not been decided and will be discussed during the next capital improvements meeting in May.
“The primary focus of the council is to balance the needs of the whole community with the limited financial resources provided by the people of Yuma. That is why we rely upon tools like masterplans to understand the will of the people. And we look to be fiscally responsible, even with a million dollars, to keep taxes low and Yuma affordable,” said the mayor in a social media post.
While the discussion surrounding Kennedy Pool is the most recent, it is not the first. Community members have been advocating for the pool’s reopening for years.
In 2023, a Save Kennedy Pool petition was launched to save the pool. It has recently gained more traction and now has about 700 signatures.
“I believe the decision to close the pool was made prematurely, and without appropriate consideration for the impact the closure would have on our community. In addition, I fear that the city is failing to adopt a clear plan for the maintenance/repair work that needs to be done on the pool,” the petition started by Shawnna Krull reads.
