Funding secured for Sacramento’s Southside Park Pool renovation. When will it reopen?

The Southside Park Pool will remain closed through the end of this summer, but officials announced on Thursday they secured state funding to finish its needed repairs and reopen it by next summer.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, said he was able to find $500,000 in California’s budget to fund renovations and reopen the pool next year. He said the funding was initially designated for an educational after-school program in North Sacramento. He said that project fell through, the funding was no longer needed and that money would’ve gone back to the state.

“This is a place where families and community members, adults and kids alike, come to cool off, meet their neighbors, have some fun,” McCarty said said at a news conference. “Not everybody has the opportunity to have a pool in their backyard.”

The assemblyman spoke about the recent death of a Sacramento teen who died in a drowning in the Sacramento River while trying to save his younger brother. McCarty emphasized the need for community pools — not only as a place where children can learn how to swim but as a way to deter children from jumping into nearby rivers.

“So many families take their kids there to literally learn how to swim and stay alive.” McCarty said about community pools. “It gets really hot; nowhere to go. People go to this river.”

Southside pool closed in early summer 2022

In April, Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela reluctantly announced that the Southside pool at 2107 Sixth St. would remain closed for a second consecutive summer while repairs were being done. She said at the time that the city had the money for the first step of repairs, but funding hadn’t been earmarked for subsequent phases.

City officials closed the pool early in the summer of 2022 to replace the fiberglass lining, which had caused swimmers to break out in rashes. With construction costs on other projects higher than anticipated, though, it wasn’t immediately refurbished.

“What we thought would be a quick fix ended up being a much more significant fix,” said Valenzuela, who joined McCarty at Thursday’s news conference.

She said city staff “moved mountains” to find the initial money for planning, and her office found additional funding to help offset some of the costs. But the project to renovate a 70-year-old swimming pool still had a $500,000 funding gap.

“We were even honestly looking at cutting funding from other community priorities to try to bring money over, which obviously would’ve had other impacts,” Valenzuela said. “So, for the assembly member and his team to come in with this gift of $500,000 is really amazing.”

The centralized location of the Southside pool allows it to serve many residents from nearby underprivileged neighborhoods, said Sarah Cox, president of the Southside Park Neighborhood Association. She said the pool is a safe alternative that keep children away from Northern California’s dangerous waterways.

She said the nearest community pool is 3 miles away, which can be a 45-minute bus ride from Southside Park. Cox said her neighborhood group will look into getting water guns for the children or other feasible alternatives to keep them cool this summer.

“It’s been pretty mild so far this year, and I’m really appreciative of that,” Cox said about the summer weather, so far. “And hopefully it doesn’t get too, too hot. It would take a lot of effort in order to find (another pool) somewhere else.”

Seeking other options for neighborhood children

But summer and triple-digit heat will come.

That’s why Valenzuela is trying to secure passes for children to ensure they can cool off at other community pools in the city. The councilwoman said she would also continue looking into the possibility of busing kids to nearby community pools.

Valenzuela said her staff went out to the surrounding community, inviting residents to come down to Southside Park for free pool days as the summer 2022 season began. And they did, plenty of families grateful for the free events, she said. Then, they were forced to close the pool indefinitely the following weekend.

“I know folks are a little nervous about how we’re gonna make sure the kids stay cool,” Valenzuela said, “which is why our office is trying to work really proactively with different community leaders to see if there’s other options we can provide while we wait to get this beautiful facility back up and running.”

Sacramento has 17 municipal swimming pools, and almost all of them have some sort of critical need or are on the city’s deferred maintenance list, said Jackie Beecham, the city’s director of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment. The pools offer spots for swimming lessons, water safety classes, swim teams, fitness classes, family nights and special events.

She said they have to get “creative and strategic” with these repair projects as funding becomes available, and they’re prioritizing Southside Park to ensure equitable access to safe swimming locations.

Beecham said Southside Park residents this summer will have affordable access nearby pools, such as Clunie Pool in East Sacramento’s McKinley Park, McClatchy Park Pool in Central Oak Park or the new North Natomas Aquatics Complex.

“Our swimming pools really provide a safe space, as you’ve heard, for our youth and families to gather during the hot summer months,” Beecham told reporters. “We’ll continue to make sure that we are prioritizing safety as number one to ensure that we’re able to keep all of our facilities open with the least amount of impact as we do complete some of these repairs.”