Cranston mayor wants to replace Budlong Pool. Here's how, and when it would open
CRANSTON – Rather than fix up the city's Budlong Pool, Mayor Ken Hopkins is proposing to replace it with a scaled-down version.
His plan involves keeping the pool closed this summer for the fourth year in the row. The redesigned facility would open in summer 2024, he said.
The Olympic-size Budlong Pool was built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and opened to the public in 1940. It holds nearly 1 million gallons of water and is the largest of its kind in the state.
Describing it as a "obsolete," Hopkins said on Monday that he wants to replace it with a "new, safe and modern" version that would be about a third the size.
"Do you know anything around from 85 years ago that we can still afford?" he asked, later noting that the new pool would be comparable in size to city pools in Providence.
More on the Budlong Pool:RI’s largest public outdoor pool won’t open this summer – and its future is uncertain
Why hasn't the Budlong Pool reopened?
Located on Aqueduct Avenue in a working-class section of Cranston, the Budlong Pool didn't open in 2020 because of the pandemic. It remained closed in 2021 because the city didn't budget for reopening the pool, including hiring lifeguards, amid the continued uncertainty.
Then, in 2022, Hopkins' administration announced that the pool was in unsafe condition and could not reopen. Officials commissioned a report from Federal Hill Group Architects LLC, who concluded that the pool was cracked and leaked constantly, its mechanical systems were not up to code, and the historical stone bathhouse building had fallen into disrepair.
At a news conference Monday at the pool – which held several feet of murky, turbid water – Hopkins said the last "major overhaul" of the facility had taken place in 1997.
"Many mayors have overseen minor renovations and short-term fixes to get through another summer program,” he said, adding that he was unwilling to take a "Band-Aid approach" to reopening it. The greenish-brown liquid in the pool was not rainwater, he said, but groundwater that had seeped in.
How Hopkins proposes to fix Budlong Pool
The first phase of Hopkins' plan would involving creating a new, handicap-accessible pool, and renovating the historical bathhouse on the property by summer 2024, he said. Later phases could include creating a splash pad, a pavilion for cookouts, and pickleball courts – and removing one of the two basketball courts in order to add more parking.
Hopkins said that his goal was to make the pool complex “multi-dimensional” so it can be used into the fall, not just in the summer.
“It is not just a pool anymore,” he said. “That’s the direction we want to go.”
Saccoccio & Associates, an architectural firm in Cranston, developed a "preliminary concept" of the new approach, Hopkins said. He is now asking the City Council to approve spending $350,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds on "the actual construction documents" for the new pool and renovation of the pool house.
In total, the first phase of the project is estimated to cost $3.5 million, Hopkins said.
More:RI communities have used two-thirds of ARPA money. How have they spent it?
Funding for the first phase will be included in Hopkins’ budget proposal, which he plans to unveil on Friday. That money would come from bonds, he said, though it’s also possible that additional ARPA funding could be used.
The city has also secured a $750,000 grant for the upgrade from Rhode Island's congressional delegation, and plans to continue to apply for other grants, Hopkins said
He noted that the federal funding requires the city to be "in compliance," meaning that the pool will need to be made handicap-accessible.
The timeline and funding source for future phases of the project are not yet clear.
Pool may open up a rift between mayor, some City Council members
Some Democratic members of the City Council have taken issue with the Republican mayor's push to rethink the pool, saying that the city should simply do the repairs necessary to ensure that the pool can be reopened, rather than taking the more expensive approach of overhauling it.
"There have been some officials in Cranston who do not want to take the time to understand the complexities of restoring this facility to make sure it lasts for many more decades and doing it in a way that is a prudent investment for our future," Hopkins said on Monday.
Since the pool will not be opening this summer, the city plans to offer an “alternative program” that will include bus trips to the beach, and use of the indoor pools at the YMCA and Park View Middle School, he said.
Additionally, Hopkins said, a new splash pad will be opening in the city’s 3rd Ward this summer. He said that he and the city’s recreation director “took to a ride to every recreation center in the state of Rhode Island” to study the prevailing trends and concluded that “splash pads are the way to go.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Budlong Pool in Cranston will stay closed summer 2023 but could reopen in 2024
