Swim Team Parents Express Concern About Pool Closure Idea

Parents of members of a youth swim team wanted the New Port Richey City Council to know what they thought of an idea to close the lap pool at the New Port Richey Recreation and Aquatic Center during the winter months to all but the swim team and ask the team to pay to heat it.

So swimmers and parents from the New Port Richey branch of Tampa Bay Aquatics showed up at the City Council meeting Aug 6 to express their concerns

One parent, Holiday resident Ellen Rose, pointed out TBay already pays $5,000 in rent annually to use the pool.

She said the team “is willing to negotiate” paying the heating bill to use the pool in the winter and also pay for its lifeguard and coach. But being asked to pay the entire heating bill or even most of it, “seems a little bit out there to us.”

New Port Richey Parks and Recreation director Elaine Smith presented the council July 23 with information on the impact of closing the pool from November through March, starting this year.

New Port Richey City Council members said then that they wanted to explore the idea of closing the pools in the winter and negotiate with the swim team that uses the facility to keep it open for that team.


The pool records extremely low attendance in the winter months, according to numbers from Smith. The average number of swimmers using the pool simultaneously almost never rose into the double digits this past winter, except when a swim team was training.

The closure could save the rec center in heating and staff costs. The cost of heating the pool over the five months amounts to $5,000. The staff costs total $24,366.

Smith said she is willing to keep it open to swimmers in Tampa Bay Aquatics (TBay) swim team in the winter so long as the team continues paying rent in those months and also pays to heat the pool. She also raised the idea of seeing if the team would open a lap pool lane to regular swimmers in exchange for the city subsidizing some of the heating costs.

Adult swimmers who use the pool in the winter also spoke their minds.

Tom Gentile said he had purchased an out-of-town membership at the center.

“I pay the out-of town fee under the impression I would be able to use the pool in the winter, he said.

City Council member Jeff Starkey stressed that the council had not made a decision on whether to close the pool. The council is set to continue discussing this issue at an Aug. 13 budget season and again in September.