Are Dallas community pools worth saving?

The Dallas Park and Recreation Board saved all nine community pools from the chopping block, at least for now, after city staff recently recommended their closure. But the reality is that city officials will probably have to close pools eventually. Most community pools are decades old, costly to maintain and severely underused.

The emotional attachment to the community pools is understandable. Many children learned to swim there, and Dallas families all over made memories in their neighborhood pools. There are also concerns about equity given that most of these pools are south of Interstate 30 in Black and Latino neighborhoods.

But the truth is that the community pools don’t see as much traffic as they once did. Their deterioration over the years has made them less appealing. And families and young people simply have more recreation options today than previous generations did.

The cold facts are what they are. A community pool like Martin Weiss, in west Oak Cliff, cost the city $139,069 last year, averaging 65 visits per day and generating less than $25,000 in revenue, according to Park and Recreation data. The Martin Weiss, Walnut Hill and Grauwyler pools — all built before 1955 — were closed this summer to repair leaks of thousands of gallons of water, Park and Recreation director John Jenkins said.

Finding parts for these pools is virtually impossible. The city is running out of salvaged parts from older facilities. If the pools run into structural issues, repairing them will be too expensive.

More modern Dallas facilities like The Cove at Crawford and the Kidd Springs aquatic centers, while not exactly money makers, do much better financially and generate stronger attendance numbers.

Right now, the Park Board is buying time. While the community pools will remain open only three days a week, per the Park Board’s recommendation, city staff will also update the Dallas Aquatic Master Plan. This formal assessment will help decide which pools should close permanently, which ones could be updated and which ones should be turned into spray grounds, Jenkins told us.

Rebuilding a pool can cost more than $4 million, but the city will have to wait several years for a new bond package or to find a corporate sponsor. Jenkins told us there is at least one private sponsor interested in investing in a community pool.

While the city decides what to do with its aquatic infrastructure, it should pursue strategic partnerships with school districts to ensure kids can learn to swim, even with fewer city-owned pools across Dallas in the future.

As things stand right now, some of these community pools will fail from old age. Keeping them open without substantial investment is a financial burden that could lead the city to redirect funding for other recreation programs toward pool repairs.

This is a case where the heart says one thing and the head says another. Lean times are here. Ignoring the facts, hard as they may be to swallow, will leave Dallas treading water.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com