SOUTHINGTON — Recreation Park pool will be closed for the 2023 season for extensive renovations to the pool and changing room facilities. The project marks the first significant overhaul of the pool facilities in 30 years since construction. The town has identified the need for renovations for the past decade. 

Though the Recreation Park pool has seen spot-fixes over the years, town officials say it’s been largely living on borrowed time. The current pool is made of concrete, but the Town Council decided that for the renovation a vinyl liner would be added, which according to town officials should largely eliminate a need for resurfacing and repairs should leaks arise. 

The pool house and changing facilities will also see refurbishment and repair. The town contracted Millennium Builders Inc., a Bloomfield-based company, to handle the work.  

Members of the Parks and Recreation board hope demolition work can begin sometime this month. 

“It's going to take this upcoming summer to really do the necessary repairs. But when it's done, it's going to be like brand-new pool,” Vice Chair of the  Parks and Recreation Committee Michael Fasulo said. “We feel that it's something that needs to be in the best shape it can be because it gets so much use and people love it. The whole park is important to us, but that particular spot for the summer really needs to be in the best condition it can be for the people.”

Though the announcement was made Friday, discussions about the renovations occurrred early last year, with $33,500 put forward for design work for the final plan to be implemented this year.

The improvements are a necessity, officials say, not just in the interest of safety but in being able to satisfy the demands of the town. The Recreation Park pool has always been among the most popular of the town’s public recreation areas, leaving officials to lament over having to close it for the season, but they insist the improvements will be worth the wait. 

They encourage residents to make use of the Veterans Memorial Park Pool at 776 Woodruff St. for the 2023 summer season instead, which will open sometime in June. 

For Mike DelSanto, town councilor and chairman of the Public Works Committee, he wants to make the new pool something that he feels will only add to Recreation Park’s legacy for swimmers in the local community. 

“Recreation Park has been a rite of passage for swimming for 100 years. Before there was a swimming pool, there was a swimming hole, which I remember swimming in in the ’70s. And then in the late ’80s, they built the pool. It's a mainstay, people use it all the time. It's always packed there, it's a great place,” DelSanto said. “It's unfortunate that it can't be done in a time where the pool can open for the year so it stinks that we have to close it for a year. But that's just the best course of action so we can get the work done quickly.”

Further details about Southington’s pools are available on the town’s website at https://www.southington.org/departments/recreation/pools.php