Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

In last week’s issue of the Northeast News, information was shared about the aquatic facilities in and around Historic Northeast. This article will further clarify why some facilities are closed and share additional services provided by KC Parks.

Kansas City Parks and Recreation has four major pools. In Northeast, Budd Park Pool at Brighton Avenue and Budd Park Esplanade and The Grove Park Pool at Truman Road and Benton Boulevard are the closest options.
“Budd pool is open, and we were just there yesterday and it was very busy,” said Douglas Schroeder, an administrative officer for KC Parks. “It’s located in Budd Park and its hours are 12 to 6 p.m. daily.”

However, Grove Pool remains closed.

“Unfortunately, Grove Pool’s motor went out, so we’ve got a replacement motor, but right now we’re working with Evergy because the power coming into the building is not at the correct voltage, and so the motor continually trips,” Schroeder said. “Right now there’s a ticket out there, they are servicing that line so that they can get the electricity to the correct level so that we can get the pool running.”

The pool cannot be safely operated without the motor, which runs the filtration system that delivers chemicals to the pool.

The Grove Pool did open this summer, but was forced to close when the motor went out.

“We’ve done everything we can, now we just need the electricity to be at the right level so we can get it open,” Schroeder said.

Right now, Evergy’s priority is servicing residential customers without electricity, Schroeder said, which is causing the delay. Schroeder said the pool could reopen any day – lifeguards and staff are standing by – but will need 24 hours to get the chemicals balanced in the pool after Evergy completes the job. The Northeast News will continue to receive updates and share when the pool plans to reopen.

This year, a shortened pool season was implemented as Kansas City feels the effects of what Schroeder calls an international lifeguard shortage.
“We’re going to see if we can keep the pools open until July 31 this year,” Schroeder said. “We’re hoping to get more guards hired. We’ve increased pay for our lifeguards to $14 an hour. We’re also providing free training and certification for our lifeguards, but even with all that we have seen little interest in people applying for jobs.”

KC Parks’ contractor for lifeguards and pool maintenance, Midwest Pool Management, has seen about 20% attendance at training sessions.
“There’s a report from USA Swimming that said this trend of lifeguard shortages is only going to get worse next year, so even though we’re going to do what we can to have the pools open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we’re extremely cautious of making promises because of the lifeguard shortage,” Schroeder said.

Hiring lifeguards is a 365-day-a-year process for Midwest Pool Management. They focus on retention, training and building interest, but are still falling short of the staffing they need for a regular pool season.
Lifeguards are typically 16 and older, with staff in their early 20’s being primarily management. For more information on open lifeguard positions, visit www.midwestpool.com.

“If you can pass the lifeguard exam and you’re a competent swimmer, you can definitely be a lifeguard,” Schroeder said.

Spraygrounds offer a free alternative to the city’s major pools, which have small entry fees. In Columbus Park, Garrison Center Sprayground is closed.
“That was closed because of construction and safety on the playground, so they don’t want children and adults around that area because there’s a construction site,” Schroeder said.

At this time, there are no plans to upgrade aquatic facilities in Northeast. However, KC Parks has contracted an architecture firm to complete a comprehensive aquatics master plan, which is going to cover all indoor and outdoor facilities, including spraygrounds and all facilities.

“They’re going to assess the maintenance, assess the physical condition, the operations, the management, programming, everything,” Schroeder said. “It’s all going to be analyzed and they’ll give us a report hopefully in the spring of [20]23. That will be our guiding document on moving forward. We hope that they will give us some suggestions on facilities, how to improve the facilities, if there’s new facilities that need to be built, if there’s facilities that need to be closed, if there’s spray parks that need to be built, all of that, how we offer swimming lessons, how we can be better at offering swimming lessons and other prep programs to serve the citizens of Kansas City, so we’re excited about that.”

At this point, KC Parks is not hosting free swim lessons because of staffing issues and low attendance.

The master plan will include a lot of public engagement. Dates will be posted on the City and KC Parks websites when they are scheduled.

While there are no immediate improvements coming, Schroeder mentioned Indian Mound had applied for Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC) funds to make improvements to the pool.

“We used PIAC funds to upgrade Budd Pool, we upgraded the filtration, we added some sprays to the edge of the zero entry, and we fixed some plumbing issues,” Schroeder said. “And I think that’s all that money did, but we also replaced all of the partitions in the restrooms to upgrade those a little bit, plus we had a mural put on the outside of the building, which made the place look a lot more fun.”

For information on KC Parks pools and spraygrounds, visit kcparks.org/place_types/aquatics/.