AMHERST — An aging public wading pool used by generations of South Amherst families will be demolished before the municipal pools open for the season in late June.
“The wading pool is being removed at Groff Park,” Town Manager Paul Bockelman said April 25.
Bockelman said he recently gave the go-ahead to the Department of Public Works to take out the 1950s-era “wader” at the Mill Lane site after the town’s health inspectors informed him that the pool wouldn’t pass an inspection.
The pool has had significant issues that aren’t worth spending money on improving, according to town officials, including cracks in the cement foundation that could cut and scrape the children who use it, various leaks and difficulty in maintaining proper chlorination levels.
“In recent years it’s been difficult to keep it running,” Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said. “We’re really at the point where we can’t, in good conscience, open it any longer.”
Last year, the wading pool opened a few weeks later than normal due to leaks, but these were temporarily fixed by the DPW.
While Bockelman said some residents have wondered if it’s a problem staffing the pool with lifeguards from Leisure Services and Supplemental Education, he notes that summer staff members have always been obligated to work at least one shift a week there.
The wading pool’s removal will leave the town with just one wading pool, at Mill River Recreation Area in North Amherst. Five years ago, the town had three functioning wading pools.
Plans remain in place to construct the town’s first spray park at Groff Park, along with a new pavilion and playground, that will be ready to use by July 2018.
Ziomek said the intent is to have water features appropriate for all ages. “It won’t be a one-size-fits-all spray park,” Ziomek said.
Bockelman said plans could also include setting aside space where a new wading pool might be built, though that might depend on funding.
There is also a possibility of someday adding another splash or wading area next to War Memorial Pool at Community Field in downtown Amherst, where a similar 60-year-old wading pool was demolished in early 2015. Town Meeting is being asked to appropriate money for an $80,000 comprehensive analysis of recreation sites downtown.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.