Each year, the Lions Club Pool and baby pool require between $10,000 and $15,000 repairs after the fall and winter seasons. The pools are concrete and the changes in temperature cause cracks and leaks that need attention each spring as the pools’ opening approaches.
in Homewood. (Chronicle file photo)
But the age of the pool is showing, and every year it’s a new problem. In the 2023 season, the baby pool was shut down for a time. To open the season in 2022, emergency work was done to repair a leak at the pool days before it was set to open.
At the Homewood-Flossmoor Park commissioners May 7 committee meeting, Patrick McAneney, superintendent of parks and planning, estimated $13,000 for the most recent repairs to the baby pool.
Lions Pool is set to open June 1. The pool is open about 80 days a year. In 2023, more than 15,000 people enjoyed the pool at 1041 Ridge Road in Homewood.
“It’s been a valiant effort, but there are some deteriorating issues that we’re experiencing with the pool,” said Mike Gianatasio, superintendent of recreation who oversees pool operations. He is looking for a better, more economical way to improve the pools.
Gianatasio presented commissioners with several options that call for resurfacing the pools. He presented three options for a PVC membrane, a type of liner over the concrete, with a 10-year warranty or using a new patented option called Inter-Glass that gives a finish that is more durable than fiberglass and becomes part of the pool. It has a 25-year warranty.
“I think we’re going to like any of these options, compared to what we have,” said Doug Boehm, park district executive director. “It’s going to fix the foundation and the integrity of the pool and the baby pool.”
The one deterrent is cost. Estimates ranged from $147,000 to $446,000. Gianatasio said those were estimates, not final costs. One process would require purchasing new grates along the sides of the pool.
Park board members were interested in learning more. They said they are aware the age of the pool is an issue, and constant repairs are costly. If there is a solution that will give the pool, built in 1980, additional years they would be willing to take it under advisement.
“The past 10 years, the baby pool has been grinded down three times,” Boehm said. The shallowness of the pool has contributed to those problems.
Boehm said $40,000 is in the current budget for work on the baby pool. The bids Gianatasio presented did break out costs for the large pool and the baby pool, but commissioners weren’t sure they wanted to give just one pool a new finish.
“If we’re going to make a commitment to the pool, we should probably make a long-term commitment. Costs are going to keep going up,” Boehm said.
“I think the bigger question is, if we don’t do one of these two options, we’ll have a conversation about when we close the pool,” Commissioner Steve Johnson said.
Boehm said he couldn’t say what the extended life of the pools is, but it is probably less than 15 years if one of these processes isn’t accepted. He said staff “has been as proactive as it we can be.”
According to the park district’s website, in 1982 a $229,200 grant from the Land and Water Conservations Fund was used to give the pool its first facelift. That’s when a bathhouse was added, the deck was enlarged, a new wading pool and a concession area were constructed, and pool plumbing was repaired and replaced as needed.
In 1993, Lions Club pool got a $1.1 million renovation that included a water slide, playground, sand volleyball courts and a new filter room. In 2013, the first water slide was replaced with a new, modern water slide.
