HARRISBURG, Pa. – City consultants held a pair of meetings Monday to gather resident feedback on the future of the city’s swimming pools.
Residents had a wide variety of feedback, from simple things like better cleanliness to larger suggestions like extended service beyond the summer months.
“At the end of the day you want the pools to look better,” Darryle Pierce, a resident, said. “There’s not plenty of people coming in like they used to, so you want to make the environment greater for everybody to enjoy themselves, whether you’re doing water sprinklers, courts, anything you can to sustain the kids and keep the society positive. Anything they could do would be great.”
Consultants are studying whether the pools should be renovated or demolished and rebuilt as modern facilities. The pools were built in the 1960s and have been closed for seasons at a time in the last few years.
Kids with the Harrisburg Boys & Girls Club are taking an active interest in the pool meetings.
“The floor is rough, and you’re walking on there and you can accidentally get cut,” Ke’lyn Thomas said.
Julian Bair said he was concerned about “people not doing their jobs, like the lifeguard, sometimes they’ll be on their phone not looking at the kids, just turning around sometimes.”
Residents say there are high stakes in these meetings to ensure that the pools are available for future generations.
“They don’t have these opportunities, so by the city offering them this opportunity they have a way of wanting to do something, becoming something and being successful,” Virginia Pereira, a resident, said.