Engineering firm Clark Patterson Lee [CPL] returned on Monday, June 12 before the Newburgh City Council and city community with a 90% design update for the pool facility that is anticipated to be open by 2025. New construction, a six lane pool, splash pad site, new recreation areas and a bathhouse multi-use space will replace the pool built within a pool, weathered locker rooms and other defects. Anticipated demolitions for this summer will help move the project forward on schedule.

In early February of this year, CPL returned with a 30% updated design plan to the layout of the pool facility. Now in June, engineers Jennifer Wengender, Timothy Moot and Jonathan DiRocco of CPL returned with renderings of the site along with a virtual presentation of the site for the public. The engineers presented new ADA (Americans with Disabilities) access ramps, a 26 feature splash pad site at the park, diving blocks similar to most competition pools, a newly constructed pool house with check-in windows, new changing rooms, first aid stations and outdoor showering stations, new mechanical rooms and lockers for personal storage with a seasonal concession stand.

Towards the end of the evening, the city council also approved several resolutions in conjunction with the overall project. City council declared itself lead agency status under State Environmental Quality Review Act, awarded the bid to and contract execution with ADP Group, Inc. for the demolition of the aquatic center at $427,000 and approved a proposal and executed a contract with CPL for construction administration professional engineering services in the amount of $32,000. City council and the community members in the audience applauded the CPL representatives for their presentation.

“I am extremely excited about this. It’s been a long time coming. I’m super happy that we’re finally getting that pool to be open and done the right way. And, you know, our community just deserves nice things,” said Councilwoman Giselle Martinez. “The city leadership, the management and the elected officials did not put the money into the infrastructure that they should have for various reasons, but they did. We are fixing this pool, we got blamed for it, and we’re fixing it,” said Councilman Anthony Grice. “I’m just very, very happy about this. We should have a plaque there with all of this council’s names on that, because we did that work. That’s our work.” “I know that the community, they’re very excited. At the beginning, we [city council] were not happy about the construction schedule but in the end, we’re gonna get something fantastic,” said Councilwoman Ramona Monteverde.

“We’re glad that the pool is coming. But the sad part is it’s been closed for like three or four years, we have lost a generation of swimmers,” said Councilman Omari Shakur. “We have lost a generation of teaching, being able to teach the younger generation. Hopefully we can catch up, let’s get this done. It looks like a beautiful job.”

“Over the past 10 or 12 years, the pool was constantly opening late because of equipment failure and breakdowns and whatever. This thing is gonna cost us a lot of money but it needs to be spent. It needs to be done, it needs to be done right,” said Councilman Robert Sklarz. “Our finances are intact. Our credit rating is intact. We’re gonna get this done,” said Mayor Torrance Harvey.

Amidst the shutdown of businesses, schools and other recreational activity areas due to the COVID pandemic, the city made the decision to close the pool in 2020. More than three years have passed since the closure and the pool remains closed, and the anticipation for the pools return has led to the city council working towards bringing back the pool with new designs and amenities with the assistance of CPL.

Despite the excitement for the anticipated return of the pool, the timeline for the pool was met with some initial concern and frustration. According to CPL with a presented schedule, pool renovation and ultimate completion would be around Memorial Day weekend of 2025. Over the course of the past summer seasons, the city looked to bring in mobile water parks for city families. In April of 2022, city council moved forward on the process to build two splash pads for the community at Xavier Lunan and Tyrone Crabb Parks in response to the community. Construction at both parks have subsequently been completed and usage would be for this summer (2023).

The current pool site at Delano-Hitch Park has the existing pool facility and attached waterslide with a pool house with locker rooms, offices and storage space. Adjacent to the pool area is a parking lot that is looking to be redone within the plan. The overall city park and dates back to 1916 which was donated by the aunt of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Annie Delano-Hitch (1849-1926). In that time, a baseball stadium, skate park, basketball courts, several playgrounds, soccer fields, a fitness court, a recreation center and office extensions now call the land home, along with the pool.